Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It was disturbing. The young girl and her friends were harassed by a group and one of the group lunged at the girls repeatedly. They found it bizarrely amusing to intimidate and harass young women like that but they did so and the young girl fell onto the tracks. She sustained injuries but thankfully none of them were that physically serious. However, we need to stop and think about the mental and emotional injuries and the trauma that has to have inflicted on that young girl and on all who witnessed it.

Back in August of last year a man was left fighting for his life after he was viciously assaulted down in the Irish Financial Services Centre, IFSC, at a Luas stop. Dublin Bus has reported hundreds of cases of antisocial behaviour over the last year. Over 760 incidents involving antisocial behaviour occurred on the country's rail network.It has reported more than 760 incidents involving antisocial behaviour occurred on the country's rail network, that is, our main-line rail service. That was just during the first six months of 2022. A 26-year-old man was assaulted in a homophobic attack. He was abused with homophobic slurs when he was taking a late-night bus home in August 2022. We live in a rich, civilised society. It is totally unacceptable for the communities, in this city and other parts of our country, that public transport is being withdrawn and people working on public transportation feel unsafe going to work and do not know what they will experience. Their families and friends do not know if they will come home safe and their employers do not know if they can guarantee their safety. The people who wish to use the public transport service and do their civic duty, reduce their carbon footprint and make their contribution to climate action, are doing so fearful of whether they will survive the journey or of what they will experience on the journey. It is totally unacceptable and I will not even go into the obscene details of the sexual activities and assaults that have taken place.

I think I have painted a picture and I hope I have not laboured the point too much. However, it is really important that Government understands this is a real issue for people living and working in our cities and towns, and throughout our country. We believe that instances such as those I have described, which are so unpleasant and potentially dangerous, are actively discouraging people from using our public transportation. We have been hearing this in our clinics and have observed it while using public transportation.

Last year, the Dublin group in Fianna Fáil did a public transport safety survey. We did the survey by talking to people who are public transport users and workers, and there were more than 1,300 respondents. The response was overwhelming. It was an online survey and it required people to go online and take some time out of their busy lives to complete it, but they took the time. There were more than 1,300 respondents, of whom 93% had witnessed antisocial behaviour on our public transportation. That is almost everyone. Nine out of ten people who used public transportation had witnessed antisocial behaviour. Some 62%, or six out of ten respondents, do not feel safe when using public transportation in the evening. Some 80% do not wish to use public transportation because they feel unsafe late at night. Almost 80% support the proposal for a dedicated Garda public transport unit. Some 53%, which is one in every two passengers, had seen antisocial behaviour on a regular basis.

Those are the results of our survey. We have many examples of effective public transport safety being provided by gardaí and police in other jurisdictions. I hope that when the Minister of State comes to the House today, he will respond positively from the Government because we have met with the passengers, service providers and gardaí. We believe this needs political support and championing and we hope the Minister of State will be able to provide that today.