New transport police must have powers of arrest – justice minister

A new transport police must have powers of arrest, the justice minister has said.

Jim O’Callaghan said the introduction of a new transport police is in the programme for government and will need new legislation to set out and govern its powers.

Under the programme for government, it states that it will create a Transport Security Force under the National Transport Authority, which would operate and have similar powers to the Airport Police and Customs officers.

Mr O’Callaghan said: “That was a commitment in the Fianna Fail manifesto.

“It’s made its way, fortunately, into the programme for government.

“Darragh O’Brien, who’s the Minister for Transport, and myself, will have responsibility in respect to that.

“The reason why we want to bring it forward is that there was experience, not just in Dublin, but throughout the country, of people finding themselves on public transport and not feeling safe, particularly late in the evening.

“So in terms of prioritising it, it is a priority. It will need legislation, I suspect.

“So we’re going to have to work in that together, the two departments.”

Mr O’Callaghan refused to provide a timeline when the transport police will be put in place.

“I think it is important that we put in place a transport police that has proper powers.

“And by that I mean unless they have the powers to arrest, it’s not really a functioning or effective transport police, but it is something that Minister O’Brien and myself will be working,” he added.

Mr O’Callaghan also said the recruitment of transport police will be separate to the garda recruitment targets.

“We’re trying to recruit 1,000 gardai a year.

“We’ve to set it (transport police) up in the first place.

“But it is going to be challenging, there’s no doubt about that.

“In many respects, were victims of our own success in Ireland, we’ve such a vibrant economy.

“We’re such a successful economy, that it is hard to attract people into the traditional jobs.

“There’s such options out there for other work. We keep doing this. It’s a great job. It’s a job worth doing.”