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Seanad
‹ An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

Irish Rail timetable changes and hate crime law

Summary

Senator Currie criticises disruptive Irish Rail timetable changes, especially on western routes. Senator Flynn then raises the Government’s decision not to support hate crime legislation and asks the Leader to respond.

I raise the unmitigated disaster that has been the change in Irish Rail timetables for Dublin. There has been a lot of focus on the northern routes and not so much on the western routes. We on those routes have been very affected. Yesterday, I put up a post on social media stating that I wanted to raise the issue in the Seanad. I got 93 responses in 24 hours. We know that if one gets five responses or five emails on an issue, it is big.

The issue is affecting our train stations, including those at Hansfield, Clonsilla, Coolmine, Castleknock, Ashtown and Pelletstown. What seems to be happening is that trains, both inbound and outbound, are now terminating in Connolly Station. Those trains are not going through to Pearse Station. There are delays of eight to ten minutes. There is overcrowding. One of the people who got in contact with me described the timetable for Docklands Station as a work of fiction. The information on the displays is not accurate. People are waiting and if the correct information is not displayed, they can miss connections. The arrangements around the platforms in Connolly Station appear chaotic. People are not being asked to change onto a train at the nearest platform but are instead being sent all over the place. There are bottlenecks in the station. There are trains of three or four carriages at peak times, which is obviously contributing to the overcrowding. I ask the Leader to write to the Joint Committee on Transport to echo the calls for representatives of Irish Rail to come before the committee to go through these issues and to find a solution. The timetables were changed on 26 August. There were attempts to improve the situation on 16 September but it has not improved. The question is: if it is not broken, why fix it?

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Following on from the Senator's remarks about social media, yesterday I put up a post that got hundreds of responses from people in the country regarding the Minister, Deputy McEntee, announcing that she will not be supporting hate crime legislation. That is absolutely devastating news for people in my community. the Traveller community, people with disabilities and people of colour, etc. We have seen the rise of the far right in this country. Even the Garda does not have proper legislation to be able to deal with it. Hate crime legislation would deal with that. I call on the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Taoiseach to reverse the decision to not have hate crime legislation that will protect the most vulnerable people within society. It absolutely makes Fine Gael looks so weak. All along, its Members supported the hate crime legislation. I listened to the Taoiseach say numerous times on radio shows that there would be hate crime legislation to protect the most vulnerable people. Then they just do a big U-turn. Again, this affects people on the margins of society who have more chance of being attacked walking down the street.

Today, we did work with Women for Election. How can we support women from minority groups standing for election if we are not going to support hate crime legislation that protects all of us? It is absolutely appalling. I call on the Leader to write to the Minister for Justice so we can debate this and it is not only her decision. I am the only person from an ethnic minority group in these Houses and I do not feel heard. People who are black do not feel heard.

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