There are now over one million journeys on average each weekday on the Transport For Ireland (TFI) network. This figure continues to grow as new services are introduced through BusConnects, Connecting Ireland and upgrades to railway services. While most journeys are undertaken without incident, some incidents can occur that impact directly and indirectly on customers. These incidents can make some customers feel unsafe while using public transport. As part of the NTA’s Statement of Strategy for 2023 – 2025 and the Department of Transport’s Strategic Mobility Policy, a review of anti-social behaviour (ASB) on public transport in Ireland is required. The NTA commissioned three consecutive waves of quantitative research, one in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

The first report of this series was published in March 2024 and was based on information collected in 2023, which included both qualitative and quantitative research. Several groups of people including public transport users and non-public transport users, as well as public transport staff and management took part in the interviews and surveys. Following on from the publication of the report, an implementation plan for measures to improve safety and perceptions of safety was agreed with transport operators in late 2024. The second report in the series was based on quantitative information collected in 2024 and was published in 2025. This third report is based on research conducted in 2025. Details of the survey methodologies and results are set out in the Appendices to this report. It is important that customers feel safe when using public transport services throughout Ireland, so this report aims to identity areas for improvement in the short, medium and long term subject to availability of the appropriate budget and resources.

P.9 Feelings of Safety on Public Transport When public transport users aged 16+ were asked, “Have you ever felt unsafe on public transport in the Republic of Ireland?”, 49% answered yes and 51% no in 2025 unchanged from 2024. Women, aged 16 – 24 and 25 – 34 -34, and residents of Dublin were more likely to report feeling unsafe. The most cited reasons for feeling unsafe were drinking/drunk people (31%), other passengers being verbally aggressive (21%), harassment (19%) and drugs (18%).  

P.15 Anti-Social Behaviour Statistics 2025 2025 is the second year in which reported anti-social behaviour incidents have been collated under the same categories across transport operators. The operators included in this data carried a total of 354 million PSO passengers in 2025. The chart (in the report) shows the recorded categories and numbers of incidents recorded under each category [including Under the influence (drugs/alcohol) and Criminal offences (other) smoking/drug use].