Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

They were unprecedented. I had not seen that before nor, I believe, had most gardaí who responded. I repeat that what we had was the largest mobilisation of public order units and not just in the response we saw on O'Connell Street. It was in a very small area but this could have expanded right across the city. It was contained in a very small area. It was horrific to look at, never mind for those who were on the ground. We had separate teams of gardaí who successfully managed to get people out of their businesses and I have spoken to many of those. These were people who were trapped in their businesses and who said that gardaí were amazing and that they could not commend them enough.

There were also separate gardaí who were responding to potential issues which might have arisen outside direct provision centres. Again, speaking to those who work with and support them, they said that gardaí were amazing.

We had 500 or 600 people who decided that they wanted to set buildings or public transport on fire, to loot and to riot. Gardaí did not lose control; they managed to contain in a very short space of time what could have been an even worse situation, and they did so in a very positive way.