Irish Rail has signed a deal to use security dogs to tackle graffiti and vandalism onboard trains.

It is a problem that is costing the company €1 million per year. 

Their new LF-K9 dogs can sniff out intruders and will enable their handlers to alert Gardaí.

Irish Rail spokesperson Jane Cregan said the cost to the taxpayer of graffiti has been significant. 

“Last year, we spent in the region of €1 million cleaning graffiti off our fleet,” she said. 

“So, we have decided to engage canine security experts to help us. 

“How it works is they’re trained to smell out intruders and people on the site who are trying to break perimeter fences or, indeed, maybe trying to engage in graffiti at different stations.” 

Irish Rail train drivers. Picture by: PA Archive/PA Images.

Ms Cregan said the dogs are already having an impact. 

“We did manage to apprehend one person at Fairview Depot who was trying to break the perimeter fence with a bag of spray cans,” she said. 

“They fled and the Gardaí were alerted. 

“I suppose what’s most interesting from a statistical point of view is that this time of year would be the worst time of year for graffiti because there’s so many hours of darkness. 

“[However], for the whole month of December, we had no incident of graffiti on any of our fleet right across the network.” 

There were an estimated 45.5 million journeys taken in Ireland in 2023.

Main image: Working puppies. Picture by: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland.