Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is aware that party colleagues have raised this repeatedly. I want to point towards the private security spend of our bus and rail operators and the impact this has on driver recruitment. It is a huge challenge in deterring people from using public transport. The Minister points towards CCTV, which is an after-the-fact matter. It is clear it is not having the impact. When the State wants to respond it is too reactionary, but when it does respond, it puts gardaí on bus services. That is what it did in west Tallaght. That is the approach. I find it incredible that there is not a clear plan to address this problem that involves a public transport unit. We hear it from Fianna Fáil repeatedly, locally and nationally. There needs to be a far clearer and more comprehensive plan to deal with this. It is not just in west Tallaght; it is in other areas as well. We have raised it repeatedly. When the various measures are taken into account, it is clear that the deployment of gardaí on those services really has an impact.

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