Mr. Billy Hann:

I thank Deputy Smith for his questions and comments. The first point is that he is right that the number of people who suffer an incident of antisocial behaviour on certain Dublin Bus services is very small. However, I sympathise with any bus driver or user of our services who have experienced any type of antisocial behaviour, no matter its severity. On the forum question, I am not 100% sure. As I understand it that forum is different from the original forum from 2008 that the Deputy spoke about. I have been calling for some time to get all of the experts into a room to collectively discuss antisocial behaviour. There is a rising trend of antisocial behaviour. It is reflected in society and is not just on public transport. It is in society as a whole. We need to have an honest and open discussion at that forum to discuss the types of measures that can be implemented to try to improve the situation. Dublin Bus has a number of robust procedures in place to protect drivers and customers on our services. That includes training drivers on how to deal with conflict situations. We have 14 CCTV cameras on our buses, protective screens for drivers, communication between the driver and the central control room, a close working relationship with An Garda Síochána and lots of other procedures. We are reviewing them to see if we can make them more robust.

I do not know if transport police is the answer to the current problem. I do not believe one single measure will fix this problem. It will have to be a multifaceted approach, which may need some element of a transport security unit. Whether that is private or from An Garda Síochána needs to be discussed and agreed. We also need to expand community forums. Dublin Bus is heavily involved in community forums and working with communities, in particular those communities where we have issues with antisocial behaviour, to try to address the issues and problems we experience in those areas. There needs to be an expansion of them. We also have a robust schools programme in place whereby we educate primary school students, in particular, about the importance of public transport to their area. We need to get everyone in the room talking about all of this, and then figure out what we will focus on and go looking for funding for it. That is where it is at. That forum has not sat yet. I am looking forward to sitting on it and contributing positively to it. We will wait and see what comes from the forum. I am not sure if I have answered the Deputy's question but that is where are at with it.