Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy may have been missing when Mr. Wynne referred to someone’s jaw being broken and being off work. Since the other person involved was local, the worker had to be put in a different area because he would otherwise have regularly been encountering the person who had assaulted him. The Deputy is right about antisocial behaviour sometimes being trivialised. Someone muttering a word is bad, but it is much worse if someone is physically assaulted, ends up getting a needle in the leg, arm, hand or wherever, is out of work and feels terrified about going to work. We all want public transport to be safe, not just for the staff, but for everyone who wants to use it. We are trying to get more people to use it. I know people who are reluctant to use public transport because of the potential for conflict. As Mr. Wynne stated, everything is fine more than 99% of the time.

However, it just takes one incident for somebody to be vulnerable, whether it is a staff member or equally a passenger. It could be life-changing for a staff member or passenger if somebody comes on with a knife, stabs them with a syringe that is infected or, God forbid, if a rock were thrown at a bus, the bus driver loses control and people are injured. These things, unfortunately, can happen.