Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As I said to Deputy Lahart, this is a matter for the Garda, not me, to enforce, but I will facilitate it in any way I can. I have been in touch with all the relevant companies about this and they are taking measures to address the issue very energetically. The Deputy is right about Iarnród Éireann - I will quote a number of figures to her - but what she says is not the case with the other transport companies. According to material received from Irish Rail, the number of recorded anti-social incidents has risen in recent years. In 2016 it was 492; in 2017, 680; in 2018, 789; and in 2019, up to October, 971. Irish Rail has been encouraging employees to report all safety-critical issues, including threatening and violent behaviour, and this appears to be coming up with some fairly unsatisfactory results as far as the number of incidents is concerned. Irish Rail has addressed the problem very energetically. On buses the trend appears to be downwards, which is encouraging. Dublin Bus, which perhaps I will go into in response to the Deputy's second supplementary question, has been taking a lot of measures as well. In Bus Éireann I think the numbers are also decreasing. Therefore, whereas Iarnród Éireann has a very serious problem which remains, the bus companies have responded to the actions that have been taken.

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