Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the Chamber. I pay tribute to all those who came to the aid of the victims of the horrendous events that took place last Thursday - Leanne, the other crèche worker and the teacher who were there with the children, Caio Benicio for his bravery in bringing down the attacker, and Siobhan Kearney for her incredible presence of mind, so justice will now be done to the assailant, and all those who helped in those shocking and frenzied few minutes. I also pay tribute to the gardaí, our firefighters, bus drivers and Luas drivers and our local authority staff whose lives were endangered on Thursday night. The livelihoods of retail, hospitality and other workers across the city were put in danger because of the wanton destruction and events that should never have happened.

Last Thursday was a trauma for all of us who love and live in this city. I am reeling, as are so many others, and we feel really angry that our city could have been so disgracefully ravaged last Thursday night. I am in Dublin 23 years now. Those of us who were born here and those of us who have made our lives here want to be proud of our city. It is our capital city, yet when I talk to people on their doorsteps and on the streets in our communities there is an overwhelming sense that Dublin has gone to the dogs, the city centre has gone to the dogs and there is no respect or pride in our main street, O’Connell Street. There is a feeling of being unsafe. People are afraid to walk around their own communities or the city centre and there is a sense that the people whose lives have fallen apart have been left on our streets. Whether it is due to alcoholism, drug addiction or mental health issues, those people need to be better supported.

What is the Government response to this? We have had a community safety forum in place now for some time, as has been said, having been announced to great fanfare in August. However, it has not been given a real budget to go out and do the things it needs to do to try to make our inner city a safer place in which young people, older people and people raising families and going out to work can feel a sense of pride and feel safe in their community. We have a Garda station on O’Connell Street that is closed for some of the most important hours of the day. Community policing numbers are only a fraction of what they were only a few short years ago. In 2020, we had 71 community police in the north central area, but there are only 20 now. Community policing was supposed to be the great white hope for our communities, but we have seen no respect for community policing at the top of An Garda Síochána. I speak regularly to our community gardaí and I am in awe of the work they do. They do an incredible job but they are utterly stretched. Overall policing numbers in the north central area have fallen by 10% in the past six years. When it comes to those working with kids who have offended or are at risk of offending, we have just five juvenile liaison officers for the whole north central area. None of this points to a Minister for Justice or a Government that is taking policing in our communities seriously.

What happened last Thursday night was a failure at the top of An Garda Síochána and a failure by the Government to properly resource the force There must be accountability. We are hurting, Dubliners are hurting and this Government is rubbing salt in our wounds by insulting our intelligence by insisting that last Thursday night's event could not have been predicted. I stood on Parnell Square at 3.30 p.m. last Thursday and it was ugly then. It was also clear that once darkness fell, it was going to become even uglier. Staff in the chipper two and a half miles up the road could tell you something was going to happen that night. At 6 p.m., there were lads and lassies in there talking about the trouble they were going to stir up in the city centre that night and the most basic read of commentary online would tell us there was going to be trouble and that is was going to be serious. Please do not insult our intelligence by peddling the line that this could not have been foreseen. If the community gardaí were out in our community and we had gardaí on the streets that night, the wanton destruction of our city and the endangerment of lives would not have taken place. Shame on this Government for failing to ensure there were enough boots on the ground to have staved off those riots and shame on the those at the top of An Garda Síochána that gardaí had to resort to WhatsApp messages to try to get backup. It is a joke. While Fine Gael can clap itself on the back and talk about increased powers for gardaí and increased penalties, which I see in the motion, the people of Dublin and elsewhere in the country know it is really about numbers. It is about a visible policing presence on our streets so people can feel safer when going about their business on their streets and not letting those who are intent on creating trouble win out.

People want to create trouble for a whole variety of reasons. I take real issue with some of the language that has been used over the last number of hours, particularly by Fine Gael but also Fianna Fáil Ministers and Oireachtas Members. It was thuggery on the streets but there are people in our communities who are disaffected, disenfranchised and feel left out. We have to ask why people felt the need to go on the streets that night. It was the far right but a much bigger group of people was involved as well. People do not want to know what the gardaí are going to do after the event; they want to know what the gardaí did to prevent it.

We have had the spectacle over the past few months of Fianna Fáil rightly arguing about the need for greater Garda resources. Fianna Fáil is in government.It had the Taoiseach, it has the Tánaiste, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for public expenditure and reform. We need to see resourcing for An Garda Síochána. I am glad that we are having this debate today. I am glad we are having this debate today but we need to have accountability and to take seriously the need for a visible Garda policing presence on our streets in Dublin, so that visitors and Dubliners can feel safe on our streets.