Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question and the opportunity to discuss the serious issue of safety on our public transport network. Antisocial behaviour is a wider societal issue to which public transport is not immune, and I fully recognise that those who regularly use and work within our public transport network are most directly impacted by any associated incidents.

Safety and security on public transport are matters that, first and foremost, must be managed by every public transport company, in conjunction with An Garda Síochána, where appropriate. Nonetheless, both my Department and the National Transport Authority, NTA, engage regularly with operators on the issue, and the NTA has established a working group on antisocial behaviour which meets monthly with the operators to discuss developing trends and share best practice. Further, each of the operators have their own safety and security policies in place to deal with issues such as antisocial behaviour, and have introduced a number of initiatives in recent years to help combat the issue. This includes increased investment on security, with a more than 50% increase in spending on rail security in the past five years, from €3.7 million in 2016 to €6 million last year.

We have also seen the wider deployment of CCTV. The entire Dublin Bus fleet is fully fitted with CCTV cameras, with up to 11 internal cameras and three external cameras fitted on the more modern vehicles in the fleet. Radios on each Dublin Bus vehicle facilitate immediate contact to a central control centre. There are also text alert systems, and joint initiatives with An Garda Síochána, such as Operation Twin-Track. Additionally, as part of my Department’s sustainable mobility plan, the NTA has committed to develop and publish an annual public transport passenger safety and personal security report and implement measures where appropriate. The combined interventions implemented to date have substantially helped tackle antisocial behaviour. However, it will require ongoing monitoring and, therefore, I am committed to continuing to work with all stakeholders to ensure the safest possible travel environment for members of the public, and the safest possible working environment for the employees providing our valuable public transport services.

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