A planned new security force aimed at deterring and tackling violence and antisocial behaviour on buses and trains would be “a toothless tiger”, transport workers have told the Government.
In a letter to Minister for Justice Jim 0’Callaghan on December 23rd, the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) said the proposed initiative would be “a token gesture“.
The NBRU said the proposed transport security force would be “unable to tackle the epidemic of antisocial behaviour”.
The current Programme for Government agreed by the Coalition says a transport security force under the National Transport Authority (NTA) would be established. It would have similar powers to the airport police and customs officers.
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However, in the letter, which was copied to Taoiseach Micheál Martin, the NBRU said “the issue of antisocial behaviour and downright thuggery across public transport is too serious to warrant a dalliance with experimental untried concepts”.
The NBRU said no draft proposals on how such a transport security force would operate had yet been provided to stakeholders in the sector.
It said it had been suggested that the 1950 Air Navigation and Transport Act could form the legislative basis for the establishment of the proposed new security force set out in the Programme for Government.
NBRU general secretary Dermot O’Leary said section 19(2) of this legislation stipulates that “where an authorised officer, who is not a member of An Garda Síochána, arrests a person under this section, he shall, forthwith, deliver him into the custody of a member of An Garda Síochána to be dealt with according to law.”
Mr O’Leary said the day-to-day operation of such a force, based on this legislation, “would simply not be practical”.
He added: “Whilst Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports have An Garda Síochána stations on campus, or in [close] proximity to the airports, the same would not hold true for the vast geographically disparate public-transport bus and rail network, making the practicalities of detention and arrest of offenders redundant, even in advance of such a force being established.”
He said the obvious problem of such a proposed security force would be the limited scope of its powers.
“In reality, we would be faced with a situation where the new NTA force will be a toothless tiger, effectively turning into a token gesture that will be unable to tackle the epidemic of antisocial behaviour,” he said.
The union repeated its call for the Government to establish “a fully functional, adequately funded division of An Garda Síochána solely dedicated to public transport“.
It said: “Anything else seriously jeopardises the continuity and provision of public transport services, as the men and women represented by the NBRU have had enough of being cannon fodder for the thugs that carry out antisocial behaviour and wanton thuggery on buses and trains.”
Mr O’Leary said his members were “at their wits’ end due to an ever-increasing gauntlet of abuse and viciousness that they face each and every day, with some Bus Éireann drivers not even having the most rudimentary protection of a security screen in their vehicles”.
Speaking last February, shortly after his appointment as Minister for Justice, Mr O’Callaghan backed the establishment of a new transport police service. He suggested that such a force must have powers of arrest.
Mr O’Callaghan’s office did not comment on the issue this week.
