Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will ask three questions in the limited time available to me. Does the Commissioner accept that there is a link between this and the toleration of antisocial behaviour on the streets, as seems to have been the case in the south inner city and north inner city, at least during the Covid lockdowns and since, and that as that becomes more and more prevalent, people then feel they can act with impunity? At least some of the rioters – very far from all of them – were mere opportunists who have been on those streets and acting with increasing impunity for a long time. That is the first question.

Second, there is an increase in antisocial behaviour in Ennis. A market building, which is a bit of a fiasco, was recently built by Clare County Council at massive cost. As there is no use for it, the building has become a place drug addicts seem to hang out and to use and the council has had to shut it down and lock it because there is no policing of it. Perhaps because the Garda does not have adequate resources, it has been unable to secure the building to the satisfaction of Clare County Council so it has been shut down. It has to be a worry when any public building on the streets of Ennis is required to be locked up because it cannot be policed.

My last point is on community policing. It is not that long since I grew up. In the town where I grew up there were always gardaí present. They were very involved and integrated in the community, training hurling teams, etc. I am not saying it should be part of their conditions that gardaí should have to train hurling teams. I am minded that the local team did very well and there were a lot of celebrations. On the night in question, one man who was particularly passionate was getting into his car to drive home and the local garda went up to him and asked, "Are you sure that is wise?" and the man replied, "Why, Paddy, are they around?" It is apocryphal but it reflects a feeling that it is not them and us and that we are all part of a community. Obviously the garda in question could have waited for the man to sit in to the car and turn the key in his ignition, and he would have become a statistic in the drink-driving arrests. The more integrated gardaí are and the more community policing we have, the more information we have, and it is not them and us. That has been lost. I am not saying that one model suits all but there is a model of policing in rural Ireland that is being lost.