Calls for dedicated public transport gardaí after female Cork bus driver recounts rape threat

A meeting of transport workers, gardaí, and politicians in Cork this week heard harrowing accounts of physical and verbal abuse against bus and train drivers, including a threat of rape against a female driver in Carrigaline.

The National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) conference took place in Cork’s Maryborough House Hotel in Douglas earlier this week and NBRU general secretary Dermot O’Leary, said the union highlighted its campaign for a dedicated garda division to combat anti-social and criminal behaviour on buses and trains. 

The conference heard testimony from a female bus driver, who was threatened in Carrigaline in 2019 with rape, by a member of the public.

“It was a very emotional contribution from her,” Mr O’Leary said.

The NBRU have long called for a unit of gardaí to be dedicated to the policing of public transport, and Mr O’Leary said there was strong support in many quarters for such a unit.

“At the end of the day, peoples’ lives are being threatened,” he told The Echo. 

“People have been threatened that their houses would be burned down, that they would be stabbed. All of that is going on, on a daily basis. There is a human face to this that cannot go unrecognised.

“Are politicians going to wait before somebody is going to get seriously hurt before taking action?”, asked Mr O’Leary.

Having gardaí on board does reduce the level of abuse, he said, as there is fear of prosecution, fines and jail. The protection of the working people at the front line, and for passengers on public transport, depends on politicians to legislate, said Mr O’Leary.