Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Boyhan for his question. If the House will indulge me, I would like to put on the record of Seanad Éireann my thanks to Senator Boyhan for his recent collaboration with officials of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform on legislation going through the Houses.

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this very important topic with Members of the House today. I am taking this debate on behalf of the Minister for Transport. I want to clarify the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding for public transport but neither the Minister nor departmental officials are involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. That being said, we are all aware that antisocial behaviour is a broad societal issue to which the public transport service is not immune. To help tackle this critical issue, there is - as the Senator said - a very strong commitment under the programme for Government to create a transport security force under the National Transport Authority, NTA. This force would operate and have similar powers to airport police and customs officers. I reassure the House this is a priority for the Government and work has already commenced in the Department of Transport on identifying the necessary legislative proposals to progress this matter.

While in recent years we have seen significant progress on investment in safety measures, as the Senator has said, antisocial behaviour remains a serious issue. It is those who regularly use and work within our public transport network who are most impacted by any safety or security incident on the network. The establishment of the transport security force will play a central role in helping to tackle this important issue.

A great deal of work on tackling the issue of antisocial behaviour specifically on public transport has already commenced and includes the establishment of the public transport safety working group, to which the Senator has referred. The public transport safety working group was established last year to identify measures to improve passenger and staff safety across the public network. The Senator specifically called out the public transport and our places of work. He also mentioned SIPTU and other unions that have run a campaign around respect in public transport workplaces which is to be welcomed.

The public transport safety working group also includes representatives from the public transport sector, operating companies, unions, the National Transport Authority, An Garda Síochána, the Department of Justice and passenger representative groups. The main focus of this group is the creation of a public transport safety charter to progress the NTA safety and security implementation plan. While I understand it is intended that members of the public transport safety working group will help to inform policymakers on ways to reduce the number of antisocial incidents we see happening in our public transport network, it will also feed into this overall commitment from the programme for Government.

The Department of Transport continues to work closely with industry stakeholders to identify measures to improve passenger safety across the public transport network. In this regard, the safety working group will play an important role when it comes to the planning and implementation of the Government's commitment to create a transport security force. The Department will also engage with a number of key stakeholders as this work progresses.

As the programme for Government clearly outlines, it is envisaged that the transport security force will operate in a manner - as I have said - similar to airport police and customs officers. The continued work of the NTA and each of the public transport operators to promote the safety and security of passengers and staff will be of the utmost importance. That is why we will be maintaining strong links with An Garda Síochána because that is where it is most important to help to tackle this important issue when it comes to physically being on trains. I will point out that there were really good days of action on this in the past year.

The Government, the Department of Transport and all stakeholders will continue to develop these new policies and mechanisms to increase safety, decrease incidents of antisocial behaviour across the public transport network and bring to life exactly what the Senator has said today.