Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This morning, we had another homicide on O'Connell Street. That follows a string of terrible murders in my constituency, the Taoiseach's constituency and across the northside generally. Nearly two weeks ago I wrote to the Taoiseach, the Minister for Justice and Equality and the Minister with responsibility for communities asking if they were prepared to set up some kind of interdepartmental task force to examine the resources that hard-pressed, disadvantaged communities need, especially those that are deeply affected by serious anti-social and criminal behaviour, including these recent murders. Is that something the Taoiseach would embark on given that it was his party's Governments that slashed spending and resources to the many community bodies in my constituency over the past eight years since 2011? As he knows, I am a director of a number of those bodies.

It was also very disappointing that when the Minister for Justice and Equality finally came to Coolock it seemed to turn into a Fine Gael type occasion in that no non-Fine Gael representatives were invited to the meeting even though many of us are members of the local joint policing committee. The reality is that Fine Gael is soft on serious crime.

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