Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not know why Deputies submit Topical Issue matters when they are not going to be here to take them. I thought there was always a reserve Topical Issue matter to make sure that four issues are discussed.

I add my voice to Deputy Lahart's in asking the Minister to tackle a growing problem on public transport, namely, anti-social behaviour and assault. By 9 September this year, 500 such incidents had been reported on Irish Rail and 11 drivers had been assaulted. Last month, four Bus Éireann drivers were assaulted. Dublin Bus has a protocol under which drivers who do not feel safe withdraw a service. Unfortunately, that is becoming very frequent.

This morning, on "Today with Sean O'Rourke", we heard two drivers, one from Irish Rail, the other a bus driver, share examples of their experiences, which included drivers being spat at, one driver being hit with a snooker ball in a sock and a ticket inspector who had three fingers broken. Only last weekend, a train on the Sligo line had to stop at Kilcock, causing a 45 minute delay for passengers while they waited for gardaí to come and remove an unruly passenger.

It is not good enough that workers in State companies do not feel safe going to work and that passengers are afraid in certain instances to use public transport or are delayed because of the need to deal with anti-social behaviour on public transport. Unfortunately, as with many of the commitments from his Department, the Minister is failing to act on this. I hope he will use the opportunity over the course of the next four minutes to outline exactly how he plans to deal with this issue.

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