Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Garda representatives for attending. I will touch on the far-right tactics of baiting gardaí into a response and looking for a response. Sometimes when there is a perceived lack of response, that can lead to an escalation of some of the situations we have seen, most notably the Dublin riots and recent events in the Chair’s area in Celbridge where members of An Garda Síochána were verbally abused and fireworks were aimed at them. That is absolutely reprehensible and is not condoned. When members of the public perceive a lack of consequences for those actions, that can lead to an escalation of some of the problems we have seen.