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POLITICAL LEADERS NEED to act on the latest assault on public transport and provide dedicated transport police before “something even more serious happens”, according to the union for bus and rail.
A 26-year-old man was hospitalised with serious facial injuries after an unprovoked homophobic assault on a Dublin Bus in the early hours of Sunday morning while he was returning from a night out.
Mark Sheehan, 26, had his earphones kicked out of his hands before being headbutted by a man having got on the bus with his friends shortly before 4am.
Responding to the assault, Dermot O’Leary, general secretary of the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU), told The Journal it was time for TDs who support a transport police unit to “turn their words into some action” and deliver legislation enacting the specialist group.
“Mark Sheehan was minding his own business. He wanted to go home peacefully and wasn’t left do that. He had the bravery to come out and tell people about what happened and I can only but admire him for having the bravery.
“But I am really frustrated because this has been raised again and again. I hope Mark Sheehan makes a full recovery but it’s a disgrace that a person can’t get onto a bus in Dublin or anywhere across the country – and it is happening across the country – and not have to put up with thuggery.”
Gardaí have confirmed they are investigating the incident which took place on Firhouse Road.
O’Leary pointed to calls from Fianna Fáil and Green Party TDs yesterday, who support the measure for transport police, saying that they need to put pressure on their party leadership.
“There are politicians who sit on the back benches of government parties in Fianna Fáil and the Greens who are supporting calls for a educated transport unit, but it’s in their gift to legislate,” he said.
“The reality is Mark Sheehan’ss assault last Sunday morning will be followed by another assault. My message is, are you waiting for something a lot more serious before you do the right thing by the travelling public?”
Yesterday, Sinn Féin’s justice spokesman Martin Kenny said that when he raised the issue previously, the was told the National Transport Authority and the Department of Justice “feel there is no requirement for a unit of An Garda Síochána” to be dedicated to transport policing.
O’Leary said another aspect that shows the need for making public transport safer was the government’s climate targets.
“We’re trying to encourage people to migrate from the motorcar to public transport.
“By the government’s own targets, we need to increase journeys by 500,000 daily by 2030 - how is that going to happen unless people can be assured that the journeys are safe.”
He added: “Whether we like it or not the future in this country has to be public transport.”
If a violent incident is taking place during a journey, bus drivers are not to intervene according to the NBRU.
“A bus driver does what it says on the tin: they drive a bus. It’s job that’s difficult enough as it is and a bus driver is not a bouncer and is not a guard,” O’Leary said.
“Our drivers can alert Central Control but even if they were to intervene, they do not have powers of arrest, powers to sanction and cannot bring people into court.”
Speaking this afternoon, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar condemned the attack and said people are entitled to feel safe on public transport.
However, he said the decision on a dedicated Garda unit for public transport “would be better” left to the Garda Commissioner.
“You want to encourage people to use public transport. It’s important that men and women and children feel safe and doing so,” he told reporters in Monaghan.
“Obviously any decision on whether there’d be a dedicated transport police would be better for the Garda Commissioner rather than the government.
“But I think we can all agree that what we’d like to see as an increase greater presence on public transport at most and train stations and also increased security provided by the companies as well. I think everyone can agree on that and that should be done.”
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Doesn’t matter how Gardai we have if there is no real punishment & rehabilitation!
Judge Paul Kelly sent out a very poor message in this case with the tugs who pushed the girl under the Dart it took Gardai six months to make an arrest then another six months to get to court and there was no real consequences for the tugs and Justice WAS NOT SEEN TO BE DONE! The poor girl is still traumatized to this day.
The general public is losing its confidence in our whole justice system and it would be my recommendation we have a Citizen Assembly on our Justice System Policing Crime punishment & Rehabilitation to run separately but along side but completely separately to the citizens assembly on Drugs.
@Cormac McKay: I think to be fair as well as part of the whole discussion it needs to be acknowledged that’s prisons are full as well.
Like most services the justice system has suffered from years of neglect and poor forward planning.
This call for a transport police is unlikely to result in any positive response. If 200 Gardai in Dublin were reassigned you’d need them in pairs. Then a shift pattern for mornings and evenings over a week with hundreds of buses runningevery day. You’d hardly notice them
@David: Prison is not always the best rehabilitation currently having over 50% failure rate ie. Re-offending
@Cormac McKay: justice system here is only about “Catch & Release ” .
@Derek Long: keeps legal aid in business ;-) ;-) are the judges in on it? money racket scam? at taxpayers expense.
It’s not just on public transport as its equally dangerous walking home at night even at 10pm. We need to see gardai on the streets patrolling. I worked in the city centre for years and never saw gardai on O Connell Street. In New York you see police at Time Square and at various locations around Manhatten. People working in hospitality, hospitals etc rely on public transport late at night and should feel safe using public transport.
@Irene Kealy: totally agree, we need to return to a method of community policing with Gardai patrolling the streets.
@Philip Cullen: genuine question: why did that stop? Is it down to cost and the shutting of stations to ‘save money’? Because I figure we can do with a few less politicians and that would free up some funds.
This will happen unless they have a garda on every bus.
I would almost guarantee the person who did this was known to the Gardai in the past. We need proper sentencing and proper consequences for assault. At the moment there is none and adding “transport police” will not change this.
@Cian Martin: Or at least at regular intervals along a route
@Cian Martin: seeing as it’s the 15 and a 4am bus, I’d suggest it was carried out by someone from Orwell or Knocklyon areas, schooled in templogue or the nure but didn’t play sport, where young’uns take up the wanna nicknack mantle to avoid being targets of actual ones from further up the road. You know the type!
Regardless outcome is worse as this is the result of trying to prove themselves hard men. Sad times but was like that a long time back too. Ah Dublin, either a Nicknack or wannabe one!
@Cian Martin: we don’t need Gardai on every bus, just on certain routes and we all know the routes in question.
THE Sentences need to be more severe no more of this suspended lark
@Marianne Sherlock: Just holding them in a cell for the maximum allowed without charge would help.
@Marianne Sherlock: Sentences aren’t a deterrent for these people. We need transport police who are visible and present on as many services as possible – that is the only deterrent that will work. Prevention is better than cure.
Thing is, even this recent horrible incident will still not push our government into action. We had the incident of the girl being pushed under the DART not so long ago and the little scrote got off scott free. This makes for good “soundbites” but action will not follow.
Why did the driver not even radio Central Control for an Ambulance? Why had the injured victim had to leave the bus? I understand that the driver’s job is to drive, but in other countries when the driver is been made aware of antisocial behaviour or an assult on a bus they stop the bus immediately, keep the doors shut and radio for police and / or an Ambulance. This makes shure help quickly arrives and makes it difficult for the offender to escape. When Police arrives they then can easily question witnesses and usually arrest the offender. Most importantly the victim is not been left alone.
@Inno Items: Yeah, but help doesn’t arrive quickly in an emergency. The drivers are well used to it.
In a representative poll of commuters, what percentage do you think would not want a dedicated transport police service? So the politicians and Garda know better. Clearly the teenage girl being thrown under the Dart at Howth Junction and this latest appalling assault aren’t good enough. What we need is a death? Or maybe a few deaths? How many?
@Ted Murphy: Not even a death or deaths will push our government into action. This article is from last week. Up to 10 teens leave 1 person in critical condition after an attack on the Luas. This happens almost daily though. https://www.newstalk.com/news/georges-dock-luas-attack-up-to-ten-teens-involved-in-serious-assault-1370789
@Ted Murphy: Eamon Ryan was saying he didn’t think we need more police and actually said the text lines can act as a deterrent / yep the text lines / he actually seems to think that if we text a helpline at 4am it’s actually going to make a difference / seriously these people are deluded
@Alan Wright: I’m afraid you are correct.
We need this to be separate from the Gardai – a completely separate body altogether. We want them there to protect people and investigate assault- not just to seize weed all day and say job done.
@Tomo: that would be extremely costly. A separate police with so many duplicated roles, overlaps, more equipment/infrastructure etc. it would not make sense to have a separate transport police. Having dedicated transport units within the guard would be a better idea but then they have to come from somewhere so frontline policing would suffer. Scotland (with a similar population) had 3,000 more police than we. That might be a good place to start.
Dublin. The new Gotham. Maybe the Guards are hoping there’ll be a Batman.
@Patrick McConville: Glad I don’t live there.
How many times…?! We don’t want a dedicated Garda unit. We want a dedicated transport police service. The reality is that a Garda Unit is going to consist of a handful of Gardaí tasked with policing thousands of services around the country. It won’t offer any real change from the status quo, which is definitely not working. An actual transport police service would take a different approach to policing transport by actually placing officers on as many services as possible. They would have the power of arrest and the ability to actually take action when required, unlike the useless rent-a-cops that the transport services are providing at the moment.
Will the transport police be able to touch or convict a teenage thug. Doubt it. Until the law system is fixed they can get away with near murder. Puttinf the word transport before the word police on a uniform doesn’t fix the issue.
The NBRU should go on an all out strike until they put transport garda on the buses, trains, dart and Lucas services in this country. Or bring in the army. Putting security guards dressed in black with the power to do f-all doesn’t work.
Whats to bet all those wanting it wouldn’t use public transport either way…
A silly idea, waste of resources. All those assaulted in parks, on the street? More isn’t always better, especially when its consuming valuable resources that could’ve been better utilised elsewhere.
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