I am grateful to the Chair for allowing me to raise a very serious matter. As you will know, Sir, Drimnagh is in the constituency for which I have been elected and there last night a CIE bus was hijacked by a number of youths whose faces were covered. It was taken some distance where more youths were waiting and set on fire. Fortunately the bus was not totally destroyed and it was subsequently driven to the garage.
Whoever is guilty of this foul deed has gone a step too far in intimidation. Whatever we feel individually or collectively about the H-Block crisis in the North, whatever we feel should be done about it, I have no doubt there is near unanimity in society in the Republic that actions of this kind first of all should not be allowed to happen and should not be tolerated. In tonight's Evening Herald a report appears under the headline “City Busmen to Seek Danger Money Increase”. The report states that bus crews are now being subjected to all sorts of attacks, stonings and robberies. It describes last night's incident as “a new turn”, in the words of an NBU spokesman. This highlights the total failure of the present Government to maintain reasonable law and peace in this city and in the country. We do not know whether this incident was encouraged by the National H-Block committee but we know that efforts were made last Thursday to prevent busmen reporting for work, an effort that failed conspicuously. However, it did not fail in other areas where people were more timid. People in my constituency had to close their businesses against their will and we read yesterday that a Fianna Fáil city councillor is understood to have been intimidated.
Whoever were the perpetrators of last night's incident if they are allowed to get away with it will cause widespread concern among bus crews, particularly if there is to be another day of mourning and continuing tension in relation to the H-Block situation. This debate is taking place in a very regrettable situation. Since you allowed me to raise this matter other events have taken place which we cannot be pleased with, but whatever occurs tonight, tomorrow or in the future there is a grave responsibility on the Government to see to it that ordinary people can go about their ordinary business in a peaceful way.
So far, the Government have failed in this respect. It was extraordinary that the Leader of Fine Gael last week had to raise here the question of intimidation and that the Minister apparently was unaware of any intimidation at that time. I want the Minister to tell the House now of the steps that have been taken to bring the perpetrators of last night's deed to justice, if there have been arrests, if not why not, and the steps that are being taken to prevent a repetition.
This is very important because too frequently the bus service in this city is interrupted, whether by strikes official or unofficial, by buses breaking down, whether they are new or otherwise. It is the ordinary people of the city who have to put up with the inconvenience and annoyance caused by the absence of a bus service. I hope the busmen and buswomen of this city will not be put off by last night's incident, will not feel that their jobs are dangerous. I hope they will continue to do their work come hell or high water and provide the service which the citizens of Dublin need. I hope they will ignore the disgraceful intimidation by the few. They are human beings and there is a danger that they will feel the need for protection. If and when there is another day of mourning the danger is that attempts to stop the bus service will be more successful than they were last Thursday.
I do not want to comment on the central issue to which, apparently, this incident is connected. If people want to mourn or show their sympathy, so be it. They should not force other people, by intimidation or otherwise, into mourning or sympathising against their will.
There is a body of opinion which says this is not the direct responsibility of anybody connected with the H-Block Committee. I am prepared to accept that that may be so. In tonight's Evening Herald there is a report which says the Garda do not believe the attack was linked to the H-Block campaign. The newspaper cites the case in Waterford where an eight year old boy was injured at the weekend playing with a petrol bomb, having seen on television petrol bombs being thrown in Belfast. Can anything highlight more the need for an equitable and just solution to that terrible problem?
