Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Given the time pressures, I will confine myself to a single issue, namely, the policing of protests. My concern is mostly around violent protest, which is not being policed effectively in any way. We have seen a rise in violent ethno-nationalist, homophobic and anti-immigration protests. If we go back to last year, Deputy Paul Murphy was assaulted outside the gates of Leinster House and it seems to many of us on the outside that nothing was done. We then saw a campaign of harassment, threats and intimidation directed towards library staff over the summer, which was allowed run rampant. We have seen an increasing level of harassment and violence towards immigrants and increasing levels of homophobic attacks. There does not seem to have been anything done about this. Unfortunately, any time I try to raise the issue, I am told it is a senior operational decision, so it seems the Garda Commissioner is the person I should be addressing questions to. I am concerned that teachers will be next. We have seen some of the same people targeting teachers in their social media tirades, so I am concerned we will see violent protest directed at schools and teachers next.

As I said, there does not seem to be proactive policing. It seems to be quite reactive. Comparisons are often drawn with when we see gardaí assisting evictions and the robust policing that comes with that. Comparisons are often made with the Debenhams workers where, again, there was very robust policing, but when it comes to assaults on Deputies and arson, we do not see the same level of policing. I note the Commissioner said those experiencing or being targeted by hate crime will be part of the next policing plan. Again, is that going to be reactive or will there be proactive elements?

It has been reported in thejournal.iethat Fórsa has stated there was a commitment to review the strategic guidance on protests. Is this going to be a full review of that strategic guidance or was it simply a reference to the review of the policing plans? It would be useful to have details of that. For me, this is about where the Commissioner is spending his budget, how much of a priority this matter is and whether he is allocating sufficient resources to it.

A lot of praise has been rightly given to community gardaí and the community-building work that is done. I know there was an inclusion forum in the past. Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman did great work on that. Have there been any proactive steps towards reaching out to stakeholders or to victims of this new wave of violent protest and trying to put in a proactive approach? We have essentially seen an increase in the number and audacity of this violent protest, and without an effective policing response it seems to be just growing. Ultimately, at the heart of this is a very antidemocratic view of the world that is dangerous.