THERE HAVE BEEN renewed calls for a dedicated transport police in the wake of reports this week of a disturbing incident on the DART in Dublin in which a group of young men were heard chanting about raping a woman. 

Earlier this week, Fine Gael’s Alan Farrell spoke out about the incident, which he witnessed take place on a nighttime train service to Malahide. 

Farrell was on the last train out of the city and overheard the group chanting “let’s rape her” as a woman stepped off the carriage at a station. 

Farrell said that he was “really disturbed” by the incident which he reported to Irish Rail. An investigation is now under way. 

Speaking to The Journal, Dermot O’Leary, general secretary of the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) said politicians had the power to make a transport police unit a reality in Ireland.

“I would say to politicians quite directly, quite squarely, are you actually waiting for something, a serious injury or worse on our public transport system – whether it is trains or buses – is that what people are waiting for?”

O’Leary said that for a number of years, representative for transport workers have been calling for a full-time police service to deal with the hundreds of incidents of anti-social behaviour each year. 

In 2018, then-Transport Minister Shane Ross said he would seek opinions from stakeholders on the establishment of a dedicated transport policing service.

Ross said he would then review the matter with the Department of Justice and An Garda Síochána.

However, in 2019, the minister confirmed that there was opposition from Garda management to the introduction of a dedicated transport police section.

He said that the Garda authorities believed that “effective local community policing efforts can meet the policing needs of the rail network and its stakeholders”.

O’Leary said the response amounted to the gardaí “washing their hands of it”.

The union boss said he would like to see a model similar to that of the British Transport Police (BTP) introduced here, with dedicated officers at train stations and monitoring live CCTV feeds so they can respond quickly to incidents.

O’Leary said such a system would make a real difference in preventing crime here. 

He said now is the time to at least start the conversation about what a police unit on public transport might look like in Ireland, insisting that there had been no real engagement on the issue for years. 

At at time when the government is trying to encourage more people to use public transport, there needs to be a concerted plan to reduce the level of anti-social behaviour, he said.

We’re coming out of a pandemic, we have a Green agenda, which is the right and proper thing to do, but what that means is we’re trying to encourage people to come back, we’re trying to get new customers on to public transport.

If they are reading articles about anti-social behaviour on trains or buses, “or witnessing people being assaulted or abused on trains, that doesn’t encourage people”.

It is good to have a Green agenda, but how do you persuade people to come on public transport [...] there needs to be a confidence instilled in people, and one of the ways of doing that is to reduce anti-social behaviour, not by lip service.

O’Leary commended Irish Rail’s efforts of having a text alert system, CCTV, and a security budget, but he said all these measures are “reactionary”.

“We have to be proactive,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Transport said that the safety of passengers was “an important factor in keeping our transport network attractive and accessible to all”.

“The safety and security of passengers and staff, including arrangements to deal with anti-social behaviour, are matters first and foremost for the individual public transport companies in conjunction with, as appropriate, An Garda Síochána.

“The National Transport Authority also has regular engagement with all operators on a variety of issues, including anti-social behaviour on public transport. The NTA has advised that all operators continue to be well supported by An Garda Síochána with a number of recent joint operations having taken place on the network.”