Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I have total confidence in the leadership of the Garda Síochána. They made decisions on the basis of their professional experience. They have reported to me and I have reported to the House that they did not anticipate that a group of 200 or 300 people would come to disrupt the event in the way they did. Garda management made a decision about the nature of policing. It decided that it should be a soft cap event and that it would keep the public order unit, colloquially known as the riot squad, in reserve. These were decisions made in good faith and on the basis of many years' experience.

People are saying that somehow the buck stops with me. I am politically accountable for the policing function in this State but in saying that, if we had accepted the alternative view, proposed by some in Opposition, that we should have a police authority, I would be sitting here with my arms folded saying, "I have no response to make to any of you. Go and ask the chairman of the police authority what happened." However, since I am Minister, responsible in a democratic assembly, I attest that we entrust to the Garda Síochána professional judgement, expertise and give it discretion as to how it conducts such an event. I stand by it and do not dump on it in public just because something unexpected happens.

I ask the House to accept that there is no suggestion whatsoever that the Garda Síochána did not put time into preparing for this event, was careless, sent out young men and women as canon fodder for people whom it expected to turn up or in any way acted carelessly. The record which I put before the House shows that the Garda Síochána spent weeks preparing for the event and took a view on the matter. I do not dump on it.

It should be said on the floor of the House that when the Commissioner and deputy commissioner went to visit Garda stations afterwards to thank the gardaí who had been involved in these events, they were cheered to the echo and received a standing ovation for their on the ground, hands-on approach to what had happened on that day. There are people here who are saying gardaí on the street were let down by management but that most certainly was not the view on Saturday evening.

Deputy Cowley came up with what I consider to be a very inane point, namely, how reservists would have coped. Perhaps he would put his thinking cap on for once in his life and ask whether it would be sensible to bring gardaí from Blackrock, Kill o' the Grange and Cabinteely into Dublin to reinforce their colleagues in the city centre and for a reservist in the local area, a skilled and trained person, to stand in for them for the afternoon behind the station counter. Perhaps he would think about this before he speaks in future. While he is on the subject, perhaps he would consider how it is that in Britain its police forces have to deal with riots and nobody at that stage says it should not have a reserve. One can make good points and bad points in the House but that is one of the worst points I have heard.

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