Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will press the Minister again to provide a more defined timeline for this. When does he think it is going to be done? Has the Minister looked at the Travel Safe policy document prepared by SIPTU? Has he met SIPTU or any other interested parties yet? I suggest that he do. There is one proposal from SIPTU I was particularly taken with. It related to public transport assistance units. These would be social care intervention officers specifically trained to deal with those causing a public disturbance on the public transport network. This would be more applicable to interventions in respect of underlying social care issues. These officers would work with the transport police in whatever format that force took. I ask the Minister to really consider that because, from talking to the JLO in my area at our Tallaght transport forum meetings, I know that is the way forward if we are talking about interventions and ASBOs on public transport. Some 80% to 90% of young people do not reoffend after a JLO intervention. That is to be preferred to a court or criminal intervention.

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