Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like others, I want to express my sympathies and condolences to the family of Tras Honan. May she rest in peace.

Today I want to speak to the appalling events that took place in my constituency and my community last Thursday. I want to start by talking and thinking about the children, their families and their carers and everybody at Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire on Parnell Square. It has been so shocking and upsetting for everybody. As a parent, it is just unimaginable to think of your child at that age going to school, coming out and being attacked in broad daylight on what is one of the busiest streets in our country. It is beside one of Europe's biggest and busiest maternity hospitals and off our capital's main street. It was a completely and utterly unacceptable event on any level. The opportunistic and exploitative violence that continued after that had absolutely nothing to do with my community, the north inner city or Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire, is to be condemned utterly. It is wrong to try to blame gardaí or politicians for what happened. It is just to be outright condemned and I challenge any politician to say otherwise.