Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We must be very conscious that this incident has set back public confidence in An Garda Síochána considerably. That is my starting point on this issue. We have as the backdrop an unprecedented housing crisis, whereby people, including families, are homeless. That the Garda organisation, whose motto is supposed to be "to protect and serve", rallies around those carrying out an eviction resonates really badly with the Irish public. One may call it political with a small "p"; it was certainly lunacy on the part of whoever made the call. Like Deputy Wallace, I do not believe it was the Garda Commissioner.

The Minister says the gardaí were only upholding the law. My neighbours' house was broken into and when they called the Garda, they did not see a garda for love nor money. That is also the job of the Garda. It chose to take sides in this instance. There was no signal that there would be public order problems of the scale that merited masks and balaclavas and all that kind of carry-on and palaver, which was highly intimidating. The matter deserves an investigation, particularly given that concrete evidence has been produced which shows that the security firm was breaching the law, yet the perception was that the gardaí were present to protect the firm and not the public.

See this speech in context