Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On policing, our guests are probably aware that representatives of the Garda will be coming before the committee. I will ask about the policing of the arson attacks that are happening. Our guests may not know the answer to my question, which is fair enough. We have heard through the media that the Garda is stating no one person is organising all of this, which is fair enough as these incidents have been scattered all over the country. These hatemongers go to an area and spout hate and someone in that area then picks it up and decides to act on it. Somebody different will be doing that in Cork, Donegal and Kildare, but those hate merchants are the cause and drivers of it. We will ask the Garda about this but from our guests' knowledge, is there legal responsibility? Could the Garda target those hatemongers as the cause of these incidents rather than running around and looking for 50 individual arsonists, which is not going to be a solution to the problem? Those five or six people who are fuelling this should be targeted. That may be an unfair question to ask our guests because they may not be sure.