Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being here and I thank the Fine Gael group for putting forward this motion. It gives the House an opportunity to discuss what was arguably the most important public order event in recent times, not just in the city but in the country. I want to start, as everyone else has done, by thinking about Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire. The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach and I have both been familiar with the school for many years. I wish to mention the five-year-old child, the children, her classmates and teachers, the SNAs and everybody who works in that school. I also wish to mention their families, immediate and extended.

It is so upsetting for everybody to think that an innocent child and children could be the victims of such a vicious and violent attack. That is what we cannot lose sight of. For me and for us it is an appalling, atrocious and repulsive event to have happened in our community and I know the Chair shares that view. I commend and thank the gardaí from Mountjoy and Store Street Garda stations and from all over the Dublin metropolitan region north, the greater Dublin metropolitan area and beyond who responded. I also mention the first responders from Phibsborough fire station and others. I thank everybody working at the Mater, Temple Street and Rotunda hospitals. Those places are institutions of this State but for us, they are our local facilities and they are in the heart of our community. The people who work there, wherever they were born, are of our community. That is who we need to be thinking of.

I will not spend a whole lot of time talking about the riots and the violence, which has been condemned roundly by everybody. There is no disagreement on how unacceptable that lawlessness, criminality and riotous behaviour is and on how there is no place for it, not only in my community but in our city and country. I listened to the Garda Commissioner in the Committee on Justice and he is talking about all of the additional public order initiatives and resources and the augmentation or increases that he is pursuing in terms of tooling up or whatever is the phrase. Significant ramping up is taking place. As I said at the outset, however, this is about our community, that child, those children and every child who goes to school. It also includes every teacher and SNA who goes to teach. We have the best of schools, facilities and communities. I think of the people who intervened; the innocent bystanders who were just passing by and who did not think twice but who stopped to intervene. That represents our community and the best of Dublin.

Before the incidents of last Thursday, I have been pursuing this issue at the policing forum and the joint policing committee with my colleagues. We have been campaigning on this issue of antisocial behaviour and public safety because it is a real concern. We have not done so because it is a political tool but because it is a real concern. It is a real concern for our community. When she replies I hope the Minister will speak to the community safety partnership. The north inner city has had a community safety partnership for a number of years. The Minister has reopened two Garda stations there. There is no constituency in the country that has had two Garda stations reopen during the time of any Government, never mind this one. There is €10 million in extra funding for the Garda in Dublin, yet people do not feel safe. It is not an outrageous expectation for us to want to feel safe to: go for a walk; go to school; or go to work. The fact that businesses in the city have to invest in private security is a given and is one of their biggest costs. Now the question is whether the schools have to as well. Do the schools have to put in place private security? That is completely unacceptable.

One of the Senators asked for funding. There should be funding but we need to address the root causes of the lack of safety and public order. We need to ensure there is an elimination, that is an absolute tackling and ending of the ongoing, consistent, persistent and open drug dealing, usage and distribution in the city centre. I could set my watch by it. I refer to all the other antisocial behaviour that goes on and that makes people uncomfortable and leaving them not knowing what will happen. As for people going to work in shops or restaurants, the fact that some restaurants operate a locked-door policy is not good enough. That is not my Dublin; it is not the Dublin of any of us. We need to look at the root causes of this. The analysis is being done on the riots. The public order initiatives and other initiatives are welcome and will be supported but we want a safe community to live and work in and to visit.