The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications has heard that antisocial behaviour on public transport is worse than ever, with workers witnessing drug taking and enduring racist abuse and harassment on a regular basis.
A delegation from the SIPTU trade union, which included workers from Dublin Bus, Irish Rail, Bus Éireann and LUAS services, outlined the issues experienced by staff to the committee this afternoon.
SIPTU representative and Worker Director with Irish Rail Tommy Wynne gave evidence, saying he had "never seen anything like it".
"I'm 30 years on the railway ... I've never seen things as bad," he said.
"The things they've put in place have helped, there's no doubt about it, but the antisocial behaviour is just getting worse all the time."
Dublin Bus worker and SIPTU representative Stephen Millane said the incidents in recent years had increased and escalated, becoming "more severe and more violent".
Mr Millane said there seemed to be no deterrent to antisocial behaviour, adding that the turnover of staff at Dublin Bus was huge because of the issue.
He said some employees were fearful working on certain routes.
Racist abuse is also an issue, with a recent survey of 650 transport workers by SIPTU finding that three quarters of those from ethnic minority backgrounds had experienced racist abuse or harassment.
Conducted as part of the union's Respect Transport Workers campaign, the research also found that just under 80% of respondents said the issue of drug use by passengers on public transport had got worse in the last 12 months.
Nearly three-quarters said that they witnessed drug abuse in their workplaces several times a month, while just under 20% said drug use was an issue they dealt with on a nearly daily basis.
More than 73% of respondents said they had felt threatened and unsafe due to the use of drugs by passengers.
Kabir Alade, a ticket inspector on the LUAS and a member of the SIPTU delegation, told RTÉ News that he had been subjected to racist abuse up to five times on the same day.
"A man was shouting 'I'm KKK'. I looked at him and thought 'forget about him' but the abuse continued, with the man shouting 'I'm talking to you, I'm KKK', we're going to make sure we sort you out'," Mr Kabir said.
He said hewas reassured when a passenger intervened telling the man to be quiet and that he could not say thing like that in Ireland.
Transdev, which operates the LUAS service, told RTÉ News that it works with employees, trade union representatives and An Garda Síochána to put in place measures to protect the welfare of staff.
It said it investigates and uses CCTV after any reported incident to see if there is any potential for involvement by gardaí.
SIPTU is calling for a dedicated transport police to protect workers and passengers on public transport services and to deter antisocial behaviour.
SIPTU Organiser Adrian Kane told the committee that the union welcomed the commitment made by Tánaiste Micheál Martin at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis this weekend to establish such a unit.
Asked by Sinn Féin Senator Lynne Boylan how he would see a public transport police service operating, Mr Kane said the union did not want to be prescriptive on how that would work, but he offered the example of the airport police at Dublin Airport.
"You have authorised officers, they have the right to detain, they have the right to stop and search, they have the right to issue fixed penalty notices, they have the right to arrest and they have the right to enforcement," he said.
The committee members were supportive of the SIPTU proposals. Chairing the meeting, Senator Gerry Horkan of Fianna Fáil said that even though antisocial behaviour was "not happening all the time everywhere", the figures show it was "happening more than we would like".
"People are fearful about participating, when we're all about climate change and trying to get people to buy into public transport," he said.
Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny said they need to recognise that the travelling public and those who work in transport services "can't all be wrong".
"I certainly welcome and concur with everything that you have in your report ... you certainly get support of Sinn Féin for it."
Green Party TD Patrick Costello said there had been a "big increase" in investment in public transport but it was "pointless if nobody's going to use it and no one's going to use it if they don't feel safe".
Labour's Duncan Smith said there were "huge challenges" for the workers and for a transport police force to tackle but "it must be done".
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Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland before the meeting, Mr Kane said some of the survey's results "are very disturbing".
He said that 73% of respondents felt threatened or unsafe due to the use of drugs on public transport.
"We also looked at racial abuse and what we found ...from people of colour and from other ethnic minorities, 75% of respondents had experienced discrimination or harassment."
While there have been calls in the past for a dedicated transport police, Mr Kane said that this is the first time that any member of Government has made such a commitment.
"We've been looking for this for a long number of years.
"We won't be dining out on promises from politicians, and we'll have to make sure that they see through on this commitment and part of that is our meeting with the Transport Oireachtas Committee today where we need to explore that."
