LIMERICK POLITICIANS SAY they found little to be surprised by in scenes witnessed in recent days when a young boy shot a bus driver with an air gun.

One local councillor said it was time for the government to offer more than just “tea and sympathy” and accept the need for a dedicated transport police.

A video of the incident leaked onto social media depicts the driver, a woman aged in her 30s, being shot in the face with an air gun by the youth while she was sitting behind the wheel.

Union Siptu has outlined that the young passengers had boarded the bus at the last stop before one began firing an air gun at the driver while she was still inside the cab.

The driver was left with a bruising at the side of her eye and has been “traumatised” by the incident according to the union.

Local Labour councilor Conor Sheehan told The Journal that it was now time to push ahead and implement a transport police to try and curtail antisocial behaviour.

This is shocking, it’s deplorable, it’s awful but it’s really not surprising.

Sheehan pointed to a survey of public transport experiences for workers by Siptu which found 80% of transport workers were suffering abuse at work.

“The government are offering nothing but tea and sympathy to these workers. They’re not taking this issue seriously at all and it takes something really bad to happens for them to sit up,” Sheehan added.

“My other concern is that Bus Éireann is trying to recruit more drivers and more woman bus drivers, so what kind of message does this send out if you can’t go to work and be safe? It’s a really basic issue.”

Sinn Féin TD for Limerick city Maurice Quinlivan said locals were “really disgusted” over last week’s incident.

He concurred with Sheehan that the incident and the apparent young age of the youths was “not a bit surprising”, explaining that he had heard regularly from drivers of “sporadic physical and verbal abuse” they’ve received during their work.

“We’ve also had a concern for a long time that young people are caught up low-level behaviour and there is anecdotal evidence that young people are being sucked into drug gangs where they’re groomed,” Quinlivan told The Journal.

“People will tell you stories like families being under pressure and sometimes they don’t have the right State support available to them.”

Quinlivan added that there can be no excuse for allowing people to “wreck services that are vital” for local communities and supported calls for a dedicated transport police.

Gardaí said they continue to investigate last Friday’s incident.

Video leak

The leaking of the video, originally recorded on an internal Bus Éireann camera, has been criticised by Siptu.

It has demanded a “full and swift investigation” into how the video managed to be made public.

SIPTU transport divisional organiser Adrian Kane said the driver had already been “traumatised” by the incident but said she now has to “deal with an unwarranted invasion of her privacy with this major breach of trust which has resulted in video of the incident being widely shared on social media”.

The union has also sought an urgent meeting including unions, the transport companies, the National Transport Authority and officials from the Department of Transport and Department of Justice to discuss the introduction of a police unit.