Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests in the Public Gallery. They have a particular interest in this matter.

I was on a train recently - not in inner city Dublin, but I will not say what part of the country - and I became aware of a gentleman being very abusive towards a staff member of Iarnród Éireann who was just checking tickets. There was no physical abuse involved but the person was being ignorant towards, and shouting and roaring at, a lovely employee of Iarnród Éireann. She was a lovely lady. I thought it was very bad form. While I would not say it was a criminal offence, the individual certainly needed to be ticked off by a garda or somebody else. I almost got involved myself and I said maybe I should not. When the lady came to check my ticket, I said that it was unacceptable, and I know other people on that train thought it was unacceptable.

There is a no doubt that there is a need to develop a public transport unit in An Garda Síochána. I very much support what Senator Fitzpatrick has brought forward. It is up to the Government to do it, but we have brought it to the floor of the House and have a Minister of State here so we are going in the right direction. As far as I can see, while there might be some difference of opinion, everybody wants this and that is very important.

Apart from fully supporting Senator Fitzpatrick and my other colleagues, Senator Sherlock hit on one thing that I have noticed myself, which is the lack of life around many of our train stations. Most of the incidents occur in city areas but incidents do occur in the country as well, although, we may not hear as much about them. There is a lack of individuals Iarnród Éireann workers. Perhaps it is due to the way they are rostered, or whatever, but you might see only one some days, two on another day, or you might not see anyone. I am talking about places like Longford and Athlone where you do not see too many people around. When staff are not there, people can be seen loitering around trains stations. Sometimes they do not get on the train; sometimes they do.

We must also look at this situation in the context of the emphasis on public transport. We are all being told this is the way to go. Never until recently did I leave my car at home. I now divide my time 50:50 travelling from Roscommon by train. I go into Longford town because it is closer to me. I am spending half the time I used to spend travelling in my car. An amount of people want to use the trains. It is a lovely journey. The more people using the system, the more we have to ensure there is a proper service for them.

I have listened to and read many of the points on the motion made by those in the audience. There are important issues facing front-line workers and they need support. I spoke in the Chamber yesterday about the disgraceful attacks being perpetrated against members of An Garda Síochána and I got huge support for it. I made the point that it is about time we stood up for all front-line workers and publicly give them support. Many people will not say anything. They are very private about this and will not say anything about it. I am talking about people in public life. We must attack all the attacks on our front-line workers and we must put in place a service that will ensure they, and their passengers, are safe and cut out the nonsense that is going on. The attacks are utterly and totally unacceptable. Many Members have referred to these attacks. They must be stamped out. Until we put a system in place, where we have a dedicated unit, that will not happen.

Let us remember that two gardaí walking up and down a platform can also be very good to see. Their presence is important. We have a commitment to 1,000 new recruits to An Garda Síochána in 2023, which is fully funded. There is also funding for extra Garda staff.I accept what Senator Keogan said about some problems regarding people not being able to get through, but we will rectify that. We do need to get those 1,000 gardaí into the system as quickly as possible. I hope that out of this we would have a dedicated Garda unit. This is something I would totally support. It is a good discussion to have here in the Chamber. I am sure that Senator Fitzpatrick and the rest of her colleagues will be bringing it forward, but, as a group of Senators, we should be very much on this in order to make sure that it can become a reality as quickly as possible.