Councillor calls for dedicated Transport Police for Dublin city and county

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has agreed to write to the Minister for Transport and Minister for Justice calling for the introduction of a designated policing system on Dublin City and County transport services.

This was supported unanimously by all elected members following the proposal of a motion by Independent Councillor for Stillorgan, Deirdre Donnelly.

“There has been an increase in anti-social behaviour and criminal activity on our public transport system particularly in recent times”, she said.

“I am deeply concerned about women’s safety when making a journey.”

“The TII Travelling in her Shoes report is a frightening testimony to the incidents women face every day while going to and from home, work, place of education or whatever. Yes, there are so many cases of behaviour that has left commuters with injuries, sometimes physical and more often than not –  psychological.

“What many don’t know however is that there are so many incidents that go unreported.”

“We are fortunate in this county to have a wide range of public transport options available to us such as bus corridors, the DART and the LUAS services.

“Sadly, there are those who intentionally make travelling this way an unpleasant one for all. We are  impacted by climate change and need to implement measures in our transport system to combat this.

“In this county many residents are affected by traffic congestion, so we need to promote the use of public transport as much as possible.

“The planned re-opening will place an emphasis amongst other things on promotion of the night-time economy.

“Given the last 18 months of on-off lockdowns and restrictions our hospitality and entertainment industries have been badly affected so any initiative to support those sectors by growing our night-time economy is welcome.

“If however we want to tackle climate change, traffic congestion and we want people out and about again we need to provide a sustainable transport system, a reliable transport system and most importantly we need to provide  a safe secure transport system.”