Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There has long been a campaign by the National Bus and Rail Workers Union, SIPTU and others involved in the transport system to ensure we try to develop a national transport policing service, as there is another countries throughout the world. When we travel, we see there is a section of the police that deals with transport issues. We see examples of problems arising here all the time because of the absence of this. Yesterday I listened to a piece on the radio about an incident in County Cork whereby a young woman was sitting on a train and a man sat down beside her. He was abusive and acting inappropriately. She asked the person we normally term the conductor, the person going around checking the tickets, to come. When he did come what did the man do? He jumped up and punched him straight in the face. We are left with a situation where these individuals feel they can behave in this way because there is no deterrent. There is nobody there to call or do anything about it. That man just jumped off the train and went off and it was all over. We need to get to a situation where we have an adequate system in place. The Minister's colleague in Fianna Fáil, the Tánaiste, has suggested he wants to see a dedicated policing service in place for public transport. Will this become Government policy? This is what needs to happen and it needs to happen quickly. If it is not going to happen the Government needs to step to one side. The Government has clearly failed the travelling public in this respect.

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