Mr. Michael O'Driscoll:

In July the American tourist was assaulted about 20 yd from my store. I actually sent an email to the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, on that. I said there was nothing surprising about someone being assaulted because it is something we regularly deal with around the area. I told her there was a complete change and a foreboding in the city centre. There was a fear that something was building. I said that something very serious would happen. What happened on Thursday, 23 November was very prophetic. I sent another email on Thursday relating back to that previous email warning that I saw complete lawlessness developing particularly since the Covid pandemic and that came to pass. As far as I was concerned, I was not surprised by those riots.