Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)

There is a temptation to offer expert opinion regarding what should have been done last Saturday. That is always very easy in hindsight. However, I will resist that temptation other than to state as a local representative, O'Connell Street being in the very centre of my constituency, that it is now self-evident that the most obvious error of judgment must have been the decision to allow it to be used by the marchers, given the road works, the fencing, the maze of side streets, the stockpile of ammunition and the pre-announced determination by certain elements that the loyalists should not pass certain sensitive locations. All that presented the Garda with an exceptionally difficult task. There was clearly a breakdown in intelligence gathering. I do not know who decided on the route, but I assume that the buck stops with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell. As usual, he has managed to divert attention from that fact.

I strongly oppose any suggestion that this be used as an excuse to restrict in any way people's right to protest on O'Connell Street or elsewhere in the city centre by way of by-laws, as the Taoiseach seemed to suggest.

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