Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

For several years, the National Bus and Rail Union, NBRU, and other unions have been trying to get the Minister and the Minister for Justice and Equality to take this issue seriously. I have a whole file which includes many letters which have been passed around from one Department to another. The demands of the workers’ representatives are simple. All Bus Éireann and public service vehicles should be retrofitted with security screens to prevent exactly the type of incident which happened last night to the driver I referred to. There should be a transport police body, for which there have been calls for a long time. Again, however, this has been passed from Billy to Jack. Bus Éireann should be cashless and its drivers should not be put in peril and be responsible for collecting fares. There should be an assault payment scheme, similar to what operates in Dublin Bus. The Minister is correct that Dublin Bus has much more security measures. The same is now requested for Bus Éireann and Irish Rail.

The Minister claimed such incidents have decreased. In late 2018, a female driver was assaulted at Busáras, a driver was threatened with a knife outside Kilbeggan, a driver was robbed in Naas and members of the Garda were called to remove aggressive passengers in Naas. This is a litany of incidents which the unions claim are on the increase and that there is no safety travelling on public transport. This is unfortunate because we are trying to get people to use public transport.

See this speech in context