Mr. Drew Harris:

There is a difference between managing a protest, which at that stage was still peaceful, although objectionable, and then taking action, as a policing service and using our powers in a situation where we could not see where the end of that might be. In effect, we would have been asking our officers to step forward into a situation where they were coming out of Parnell Square, into a huge street, O'Connell Street, with other major thoroughfares off it. That would have divided their resources down too far.