Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late for the start of the meeting but I had another meeting to attend. I thank the Minister for her opening statement. I am concerned about the debate that has taken place about the events of last Thursday week. These have been conflated with the ongoing policing problems in Dublin city. I believe the two are completely separate. What happened last Thursday week was orchestrated by the far right. It was pushed by them and people were encouraged onto the streets and incited to attack gardaí. That is a separate issue from the ongoing policing issues in Dublin. While they are related, it is a separate issue. It is important to say that. Because of that, I am concerned about the lack of response by the gardaí over the last number of years in relation to the far right. This has led these incidents taking place. I have some questions about the actual response on the day and I will get to those.

The Minister said in her opening statement that she commends each and every garda for restoring order to the streets as quickly as possible and for their ongoing efforts to bring those responsible to justice. Will there be a review in the Department as to what was done or not done on that day? Would such a review look at the lead-up to this and the policing of the far right in this State which lead to what happened on the day?

Regarding the events of the day itself, those of us in Agriculture House were evacuated at 4.30 p.m. We were told we had to leave, to get out of the city and so on. Yet the gardaí who were here last week said they did not get reinforcements until 7 p.m. How come we were told to leave 4.30 p.m. but there did not seem to be a response until 7 p.m.? That needs to be looked at and discussed as well.