John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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89. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to outline his plans to ensure the safety of passengers on public transport; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42053/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport; however, I am not involved in the day-to-day operations of public transport.

Anti-social behaviour is a broad societal issue to which public transport is unfortunately not immune; and those who regularly use and work within our public transport network are most directly impacted by any safety or security incidents that may occur on the network.

While the safety and security of both public transport passengers and staff is of utmost importance, arrangements to deal with anti-social behaviour on public transport are matters which first and foremost must be managed by every public transport company, in conjunction with An Garda Síochána where appropriate.

My Department has been engaging directly with the NTA and the PSO operators on the issue of anti-social behaviour and ensuring the safety of passengers and staff. Operators continuously stress their strong and close working relationships with An Garda Síochána in relation to these issues.

Further, each of the operators have their own safety and security policies in place, to deal with issues such as antisocial behaviour, and have introduced a number of initiatives in recent years to help combat the issue, including:

• Increased investment on security - for example, a substantial increase in spending on rail security, from €3.7m in 2016 to €6.0m in 2022;
• CCTV - the entire Dublin Bus fleet is fully fitted with CCTV cameras, with up to 11 internal cameras and three external cameras fitted on the more modern vehicles in the fleet;
• Radios on each Dublin Bus vehicle which facilitate immediate contact to a Central Control Centre;
• Text alert systems, and;
• Joint initiatives with An Garda Síochána.