Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

One of the great things about being towards the end of the Order of Business is that you have to keep finding new topics since the ones you were going to speak on have been used up. I completely support both Senator Crowe's comments on special exemption orders and a point which I was going to make earlier, which was raised by Senator Ardagh, about the amount of anti-social activity and behaviour, particularly in Dublin city centre.Most of us would like to think that Dublin could be like any other European capital with more pedestrian areas and larger areas that are car free. These places have tended to be the areas that then have had less passive surveillance from buses, taxis and cars and consequently need a different type of surveillance that they no longer get from traffic. Most of these videos seem to show pedestrian streets.

I wish to make the point that we have seen quite an increase in anti-social behaviour and criminality on the Luas system. Yesterday, it was reported that there was such an instance at the Luas stop on Parnell Street but there have been other instances as well and the idea of transport police is becoming more urgent.

I support all of the comments that Senator Fitzpatrick made about the MetroLink, the green line out to Cherrywood and her call for it to be upgraded. As we ask more people to use public transport, cycle and use pedestrian areas, we need these areas policed in a way that they did not need to be policed before. It is an old phrase, and one that I have never used before, but we must do a proper crackdown and say anti-social behaviour is not on. All of these areas must be targeted and these gangs that appear to be in existence must know that their behaviour is unacceptable. Every age of people are being frightened and terrorised as they go about their day. We have seen 20-year-olds being attacked on the boardwalk. Equally, older people feel very vulnerable as they start coming back into the city centre and start using public transport again. It is really important that the Leader arranges a debate with the Minister for Justice and the Minister for Transport on transport police, as soon as possible.