Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for being here. I have to be in the Chamber straight after my contribution, so I ask them to excuse my absence when I leave. My mind works a bit differently to those of some of the contributors so far. Since what happened on Thursday, my head has been very much in the "Why?" rather than the response. There is a distraction in some sense in looking at the response from An Garda Síochána to an event that happened at that scale for the first time. The Commissioner made an interesting point when he said that the members of the Garda were seen as an arm of the State and were on the receiving end of anger and hate. My analysis of the scenario is that many things that have happened up to this point. Politicians are pointing fingers at particular individuals, at the police Commissioner or at whatever, rather than looking inwards and asking what has led us here today and why it has led us here. I am wondering, given all the Commissioner's years in the profession, what he sees as the core driver of violence, forgetting the scenarios that may spark it off. What are those core drivers of violence, when we look at communities that have a higher propensity towards violence?