Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

As I said previously, this was unprecedented. It had not happened before, therefore the consequences were difficult to anticipate. However, it now appears clearly evident that there was a failure to assess properly, a failure to plan properly, a failure to anticipate properly and a failure to be ready for the worst. Nobody wants a perception of our city that on a march, which has been approved, there must be a ring of steel down O'Connell Street but as this was the consequence of a political parade that had never happened before in this country, it should have been perfectly obvious that at least resources and facilities should have been made available and ready quickly to deal with unforeseen or unanticipated consequences. It is in that failure that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, must accept political responsibility for this, as the person in charge of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. In that failure to anticipate, to plan and to provide resources, the Minister has failed in his duty as head of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

The Taoiseach, in his radio interview on Saturday, stated that the word was out on Friday in his constituency that something like this was going to happen. We had signals from others that this was going to happen as well. On Friday the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, in his speech in Waterford, gave a political lecture about the Progressive Democrats being meat in a sandwich. On Saturday, because of the failure to plan properly for this and to be ready for the worst, the front-line gardaí in ordinary uniforms facing bricks, billiard balls, stones and petrol bombs were the meat in the sandwich between democracy and anarchy. Political responsibility for that failure must rest with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

When Ireland held the EU Presidency last year, 5,000 gardaí and Army were deployed. It was a ring of steel. While I agree with the Taoiseach that one does not want pictures of the main street of the capital city every day ringed with Army and Garda, as this never happened before there should have been an anticipation that the worst might happen and that the resources to deal with it would have been readily available. In that sense, does the Taoiseach agree that the handling of this, between senior management and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, was flawed? Does he accept that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform must accept political responsibility as the head of his Department for this debacle, which could have turned into a conflagration on O'Connell Street in less than ten minutes? Those thugs, hooligans and neo-Nationalists of whatever so-called republican hue——

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