Taoiseach plays down prospect of a dedicated transport police being established immediately

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has played down the prospect of a dedicated transport police being established in the immediate future while acknowledging the concerns of bus and rail workers regarding their right to safe and secure working environment.

Mr Martin told the biennial conference of the National Bus and Rail Workers’ Union (NBRU) in Cork that antisocial behaviour on public transport was a growing concern, and that bus and rail workers were entitled to express their concerns about the issue.

“Confidence in the safety and security of public transport is hugely important for passengers, but it is also of the utmost concern to you, the people who make it all work — we want everyone to feel assured that they can work an travel at any time of the day or night without fear of harassment,” he said.

Mr Martin said that the Government had allocated funding of over €2 billion in the 2023 budget which will allow for extra recruitment of up to 1,000 new gardaí and 400 garda staff as well as greater garda overtime to support high visibility policing to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour.

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But he acknowledged that more needs to be done with a great focus of the policing of the public transport system and the need to establish stronger relationships between An Garda Síochána and the public transport sector.

“That [the safety agenda] is all important and we have given additional funding for that in the budget, there will be more gardaí recruited and so forth, but the issue for you fundamentally of a dedicated transport police, we are some bit off that yet, if I’m honest with you,” he said.

“But I do think we have to engage more practically with the Department of Justice, the Minister for Justice, the Garda Commissioner and yourselves to work out a new dispensation that ensures there is a more structured approach to safety in public transport into the future.”

Mr Martin said that ensuring a safe environment on public transport was also essential if the hoped for increase in the number of people using public transport is to be achieved as people need to have confidence that they can travel in safety, day or night.

NRBU General Secretary, Dermot O’Leary said that while he was not surprised by Mr Martin’s comments ruling out the immediate establishment of a dedicated transport police, he was still encouraged that Mr Martin acknowledged it was still on the agenda as an issue to be addressed.

“We accept that the Taoiseach said the setting up a dedicated transport police wasn’t going to happen immediately but the fact that he referenced it indicates that the concept of such a police unit is very much still on the agenda,” Mr O’Leary told The Irish Times afterwards.

“We’re going to have a panel discussion on it tomorrow with the chair of the joint Oireachtas Committee, James Lawless and the justice spokespeople from the various parties in attendance here which is also very encouraging for us.

“But perhaps as significantly, Antoinette Cunningham from AGSI and Damian McCarthy from the GRA are also coming in and we believe they are going to give us their support quite openly in relation to that concept which is at variance with what the Garda Commissioner is saying.

“I will say this, though — the Garda Commissioner in recent times has tempered his language a bit — he’s gone from ‘a blanket no’ to ‘not at the moment’ — that language combined with the Taoiseach’s reference to it, is positive enough and it will be central to the conference here tomorrow.”

Earlier, Mr Martin, who recalled how his own late father, Paddy was a founder member of the then National Bus Workers Union in Cork in 1963, paid tribute to public transport workers during the Covid 19 pandemic for their efforts to ensure essential workers were able to get to work.

“We, as a people, are at our best, when we come together in collective solidarity. We saw this during the pandemic when you, our bus and rail workers, across the country at Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus and Iarnrod Eireann ensured that critical public transport services were maintained.

“This allowed essential workers to get to work safely and play their part in the fight against Covid 19 — you played an absolutely key role in our great shared national effort, and I thank you for it,” Mr Martin told the 70 or so NBRU delegates at the conference at the Maryborough House Hotel.

Afterwards, NBRU national executive members presented Mr Martin with a specially commissioned collage by artist Jimmy Robinson showing Mr Martin’s late father, Paddy, the No 4 bus in Cork that he drove and Mr Martin as a memento of his addressing the conference.