The National Bus and Rail Union has written to Minister for Transport Shane Ross asking him to urgently increase levels of security to protect its members after a serious assault on a worker at Connolly Station in Dublin.
It is understood the man was allegedly hit with a bottle and also suffered a fractured wrist in the attack last Saturday.
In a letter to the Minister on Monday evening, NBRU general secretary Dermot O’Leary said the assault was being viewed “as a watershed moment” in the current debate over issues of antisocial behaviour affecting the union’s members.
“’Enough is enough’ is the narrative being promulgated among staff. It is hard to disagree,” Mr O’Leary said.
He said his office had been “inundated with queries with regard to the incident” and the members had asked that the Minister “be advised immediately” in order that he might be in a position to make “a positive and meaningful intervention”.
Unacceptable behaviour
Mr O’Leary said he was requesting on behalf of all public transport staff and commuters that the Minister commit to making the necessary resources available to “significantly increase the level of security, which is required to tackle this unacceptable behaviour”.
“I would also respectfully suggest that you will seek a commitment from the Minister for Justice to assist in providing Garda resources to the transport companies as they endeavour to cope with the unprecedented levels of thuggery,” he said.
“Transport staff now require assurances for both themselves and the travelling public with regards to their personal safety and wellbeing.
“There is no slow burner on this issue, all stakeholders will have to act immediately, and the health and safety alternative may involve decisions which may affect some of the current schedules of trains and buses.”
Mr O’Leary said he would not ordinarily write to the Minister so soon after “a relatively recent exchange of correspondence between our respective offices relating to the issue of the NBRU call for a transport police”.
“Your response to my recent letter was met with quite an amount of positivity from our members and public transport staff in general, given that it spoke encouragingly to the concept of a police (Garda)-style resource on our public transport system,” he said.
The union has previously welcomed moves by Irish Rail to step up security in some stations following a number of incidents, particularly some stations on the Dart line.