Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The challenge here concerns situations, such as those we have seen recently, where there have been large gatherings of people into which fireworks have been thrown. When the police arrived and spoke to people, however, there did not seem to be an ability to identify who had thrown the fireworks. This seems to be a major problem where younger people are not willing to say who threw a firework. Some people living in communities, who also know who is responsible, are not willing to say who did it. If it is not possible to know who threw, fired or set off a firework, it is very difficult for An Garda Síochána to pinpoint who is responsible.

For younger people, in particular, this comes back to education about the dangers of fireworks and what damage they can do. It is often too late to learn lessons once there has been an accident and someone has been seriously injured or damaged as occurred. Whether it is coming up to Hallowe'en or not, we need all communities, all parents and all schools to stress and stress again the dangers of fireworks that are not set off in a controlled environment with people present who have experience in this area. I think that could help a great deal.

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