Irish Examiner view: We need a proper transport security force, and we need it now
The 'Irish Examiner' has reported that antisocial behaviour is forcing bus drivers to quit their jobs. Stock picture: Alamy
News that antisocial behaviour is forcing bus drivers to quit their jobs underlines the urgent need for the new transport security force promised in the programme for government.
As reported in yesterday’s , Bus Éireann recorded 653 incidents of antisocial behaviour on its services last year — an average of 12 a week. The true figure is likely much higher.
According to the National Bus and Rail Union, many drivers do not report every incident as they do not see the point. Verbal abuse, physical assaults on drivers and passengers, missiles thrown at vehicles, graffiti, and vandalism have become all too-familiar features of parts of the public transport network. We all pay the price.
Drivers and passengers, exposed to unruly or intimidating behaviour, are the obvious victims. So too are the people left waiting as buses, trains, or trams that are delayed while gardaí are called. Entire communities suffer when services are curtailed, often late in the evening, because it not considered safe for buses to go into certain areas. There are also the many who quietly alter their lives to avoid antisocial behaviour, turning down late shifts, cutting back on social outings, or thinking twice about visiting family and friends.
More broadly, persistent disorder on public transport discourages people from leaving their cars at home, undermining efforts to reduce congestion and cut emissions.
Earlier this year, minister for transport Darragh O’Brien said establishing a transport security force was a high priority for the Government. Its members would have powers, similar to those exercised by airport police and customs officers, to arrest and pursue offenders. He acknowledged that creating such a force is complex and requires substantial legislation, but the work is underway.
The urgency of this project cannot be overstated. Delays mean more abuse of frontline staff, more disruption for passengers, and more people deterred from using public transport. The true test of the Government’s commitment to making public transport safer and more attractive will be the delivery of an effective transport security force on time.
Children’s Health Ireland last year joined with the Road Safety Authority in a campaign highlighting the devastating consequences of children using e-scooters. The campaign, launched in November, noted that e-scooters were now the leading cause of traumatic brain injury in children admitted to CHI at Temple Street, the country’s national neurological centre.
In the previous year alone, 20 children were brought to Temple St having sustained serious brain injuries in falls from e-scooters. Despite legislation making e-scooter use by under-16s illegal in 2023, doctors say the ban is failing. Last week, Temple St doctors called for a complete ban, describing the number of brain injuries as “unprecedented”.
In the two weeks to last Friday, six children were admitted to intensive care with traumatic brain injuries from e-scooter accidents — four of them remaining on life support.
Consultant neurosurgeon Darach Crimmins said the number of e-scooter-related brain injuries had actually increased since the under-16 ban was introduced. The problem is not confined to children; colleagues in Beaumont Hospital are reporting a similar rise in brain injuries among adults.
Gardaí, meanwhile, are seeking specialised pursuit training; the call was reiterated after a student garda was injured when he was struck while trying to stop an e-scooter.
An outright ban on e-scooters may sound radical. For many commuters, e-scooters are an inexpensive, convenient alternative to sitting in traffic, while their relatively low cost makes them attractive to young people to get to college or work. But those benefits must be weighed against the terrible human cost. If any other consumer product were linked to children suffering such catastrophic injuries in so short a period, there would be overwhelming public pressure to remove it from the market.
Given the scale of the harm, the doctors’ call for a complete ban is worth serious consideration.
Canadian-American author and entrepreneur Melanie Notkin captured the zeitgeist in 2008 when she coined the acronym Pank — 'professional aunt, no kids'.
It was a slightly tongue-in-cheek label, but it resonated with a growing number of women who, through choice or circumstance, had no children of their own but played a significant — and often generous — role in the lives of their nieces and nephews.
Ireland has its own growing army of Panks — and of equally devoted uncles.
Many are happy to step in with child minding, lavish presents, and financial support.
But when it comes to passing on what they have accumulated over a lifetime, the tax system treats these family relationships as distinctly second class.
That is part of the reason representatives of the End Discrimination in Inheritance Tax (Edit) campaign are meeting Tánaiste Simon Harris today.
They argue that Ireland’s hundreds of thousands of childless citizens, including the aunts and uncles, are discriminated against when it comes to the inheritance tax regime.
Under existing capital acquisitions tax rules, a child can inherit up to €400,000 from a parent tax-free before paying tax at 33% on the balance.
A niece or nephew inheriting from an aunt or uncle can inherit just €40,000 tax free before the same 33% rate applies.
Edit is proposing the introduction of an index-linked lifetime threshold of €460,000 to be available to every citizen.
Campaigners say this would remove the inequality faced by the families and loved ones of childless citizens.
It would cost the exchequer, which would lose a substantial amount from its current inheritance tax take.
But as the number of individuals or couples without children rises steadily, it is increasingly difficult to justify why the tax treatment of an inheritance from an aunt or uncle, who has forged a lifelong bond with a niece or nephew, and has played a key role in their lives, should be so seriously inferior to an inheritance from a parent.
Ireland prides itself on recognising that families come in many forms.
It is time our inheritance laws caught up with that reality.
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