Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is welcome. I unreservedly condemn the attack on innocent people that took place on the streets of Dublin last Thursday. The attack on children outside Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire and their carer was absolutely abominable and atrocious. It was unbelievable that any individual, whoever they are, could attack innocent children in this country, in our capital city. I acknowledge the pain and suffering of the families and give best wishes to all on the road to recovery who were the subject of the attack. I acknowledge the work and the intervention of bystanders on that day. Without them, the atrocity could have been far worse. I acknowledge the endeavours of those who assisted, intervened and held the perpetrator down while gardaí arrived.I want to acknowledge all those who intervened.

I acknowledge the front-line responders, particularly members of An Garda Síochána, who attended and were the first line of defence in Dublin on that day. The role of An Garda Síochána and its members is a difficult one. It is difficult any day of the week but the scenes we witnessed in Dublin last week, and the orchestrated campaign against gardaí, property, businesses and ordinary individuals that we saw on our social media, televisions and videos, are to be unreservedly condemned. Each and every individual member of An Garda Síochána who was there, who responded and who put his or her life in danger and suffered at the hands of the crowds and rioters is to be praised and commended for their work, as are all members of the emergency services who responded and who themselves came under attack. Their vehicles were under attack. The scenes we witnessed in Dublin last week were unbelievable.

I acknowledge the ordinary people, including the bus and Luas drivers, who saw their vehicles being attacked and burned. What we witnessed was blatant criminality on our streets. The bravery of all those involved in dealing with these issues has to be acknowledged. I also acknowledge the swift response of the medical staff who assisted those on the front line, the innocent children and their carer who were attacked and all those who were injured during the week, including members of An Garda Síochána.

I welcome the investment the Minister announced for Dublin recently, namely, an additional allocation of €10 million for An Garda Síochána in Dublin, and the recent increases in penalties for attacks and assaults on a member of An Garda Síochána or the emergency services. I acknowledge the legislation the Minister has been pushing through with regard to body-worn cameras. This will be hugely important for future events, although we hope there will be none as bad as this recent one. For future events, the body-worn cameras will be of huge assistance to members of An Garda Síochána in catching criminals and rioters who act in this fashion.

I also acknowledge the commitment with regard to facial recognition technologies. We have to use every piece of modern technology to ensure we can identify people who are involved in criminality, rioting or public disorder, particularly the serious type conducted against members of An Garda Síochána, whose primary job is to protect the peace and every individual in and citizen of our State.

I want to speak about those individuals who were involved. I do not in any way want to denigrate the residents of the immediate vicinity because, as I understand from reports, people travelled from outside Dublin 1, Dublin 2 and wherever else. They travelled from outside the immediate vicinity to be involved in the rioting and the behaviour we witnessed on our streets. This was an orchestrated campaign by the people involved, the unsavoury individuals who congregated for the sole purpose of creating havoc and mayhem and attacking members of An Garda Síochána, businesses, property and decent, ordinary people going about their day and their business in Dublin city. It was mindless violence that we witnessed. The gardaí did the best they could do. We have to ensure that if there is such an event again, whether it is next week, tomorrow or this evening, the response is co-ordinated and serious. I welcome the commitment to bringing in water cannons as a deterrent. We see that on our television screens in other jurisdictions as something that is positive and highly effective and that works. We need them here.

The majority of people whom I have spoken to from around the country who witnessed the scenes on our streets, on television screens and on social media are fully in support of An Garda Síochána. They feel the only response to the people involved in this sort of criminality and rioting is a good, honest, decent beating. I will be blunt about it. One probably cannot say that but I will be blunt. That is what people want to see. They want gardaí to have the powers and to know they will be safe in using a baton to attack individuals who are involved in rioting and criminality. We can talk all we like about reasons and everything else but there is absolutely no excuse for what we saw. People deserve to know that An Garda Síochána can use the powers it has to treat rioters and those involved in such incidents with force.

There is a concern among members of An Garda Síochána that in certain cases where they show force there will be video cameras and footage and they will be the ones who will be prosecuted by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC. That is a concern that gardaí have relayed to Members of the Oireachtas. There are concerns. It is important to know, particularly in cases of public disorder such as we saw, that gardaí can fully go about their work and perform their role of defending the streets, defending people and acting in such a manner as to bring things under control.

I know there is an ongoing campaign to recruit gardaí. That is hugely important because we know the importance of gardaí, whether it is in Dublin city or other parts of the country. The Minister has introduced a lot of measures, including a recent change increasing the maximum recruitment age for gardaí to 50 years. Can the Minister say when the next campaigns will be? An individual who contacted me has been looking for this for a long time. I said that campaigns are very difficult to plan and it is not known when the next campaigns will be. The person asked where someone living in a town such as, say, Castlebar, who goes through training would be stationed. A trainee with a young family has no idea beforehand where he or she might be stationed. Would this person be stationed in Wexford, Cork or Donegal or would it be Galway, which is at least close to home? Those are the sorts of things that may be known within the force in the early days of training but perhaps act as a disincentive to people being recruited.

We need to see the Garda force brought back. I know there was a hiatus because of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which the Garda College in Templemore closed unfortunately, so there is a bit of a backlog. We also know there are people leaving. In some ways, it could be argued that people cannot be blamed for wanting to leave the Garda if they have to endure what we saw on the streets of Dublin last week. At the same time, people join An Garda Síochána with the correct motive, namely, to protect the peace and ordinary, decent people in our country. It is important that we support members of An Garda Síochána but that do we everything we can to ensure we get adequate numbers into the force in years to come. Some of the measures the Minister has put in place are steps in the right direction.

Regarding the response, it is important to ask whether, if something like this were to happen again tonight or tomorrow, there would be a different response. Would there be a more co-ordinated response and would the Garda Commissioner do things differently with regard to front-line policing? Would he have plans to do something different in response? Would it be a stronger, quicker and more co-ordinated response? Would the Commissioner have additional equipment or resources at his disposal? Could things be done differently that would have ensured a quicker or more effective response? Those are questions I know the Commissioner will answer and I know he is before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice this afternoon to address those matters.

It is hugely important that we have comfort going forward. While we cannot change what happened last Thursday, we must ensure there is adequate intelligence and adequate information gathering and monitoring of social media activity to know if something like this is going to happen.In this case, the individuals were deemed to be far right and anti-immigrant, but some people will look for any excuse to have a protest, cause a riot or upset ordinary and decent people in Dublin or anywhere these things might happen. It is important we recognise that. On this occasion, it was a co-ordinated attempt by certain individuals using far-right channels to call for people to congregate with a view to protesting and rioting, in this case about migration. The next time, who knows what it might be about? It is important that whatever the protest, wherever it is, in Dublin, Galway or a rural area, that we have an effective response by An Garda Síochána to ensure those who perpetrate it feel the full force of the law on the day they are rioting and causing trouble and following that in the courts.

We must have the sentencing necessary to act as a deterrent and force people to think twice before acting with the kind of mindless violence and destruction we saw. I welcome the commitment about additional prison places. That is ultimately necessary whether we like it or not. Every democratic country, every country that prides itself on its law and order, needs to ensure it has sufficient places to hold those convicted of serious crimes. Will the Minister elaborate in her response on her plans and the timescales for the design and planning for the additional 400 places in various locations? It is important to ensure people know we have the capacity in the system for gardaí to be able to protect and arrest, that the courts have sufficient powers to ensure prosecution, that we have sentences that act as a deterrent and punishment for the crime and prison places to hold people who are convicted.

We can talk about other issues in certain communities, but this was not a riot in a particular community. It was orchestrated. People came to an area with the sole purpose of causing trouble and harm and of looting, in a way that we have seen in other countries but not so much here, impacting on businesses. The individuals who went out looting were not patriots. They were not standing up for Ireland. They were not worried about migration. That was not a response to the issues that were mentioned. It was taking advantage of a situation of mayhem by acting in the manner we saw, which was unforgivable. It impacted on decent people and on businesses which we hope employ local people from the community in the run-up to Christmas. We saw it in Arnotts and in other places. Arnotts is synonymous with Dublin and Christmas. What we saw was shocking and we need to ensure, insofar as we can, through the Government response and the response of An Garda Síochána and whatever legislative changes that need to be made - perhaps there is sufficient legislation - that things like this do not happen.

Coimisiún na Meán worked with certain platforms to shut down certain posts, etc. I understand that many co-operated and some did not. I have been meaning to look at that. It is not an easy situation to change or rectify. Some companies that are based outside the State have platforms in the State. It is reprehensible that certain posts are allowed to be put up, but more important, once they are up that they are allowed to stay up. At our party meeting last night, we saw one incidence in the responses to a garda's wife who expressed concern about how her husband had been treated on the streets that day. The responses received were deplorable.

I commend that Minister on her work, her engagement and her proactivity on this matter and her continued engagement with the Garda Commissioner.