Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Community safety is not just an empty concept. The Government has to look at it and invest in it. It needs to invest in community gardaí and I will come back to that. It needs to invest not only in youth services and community facilities but also in CCTV cameras and the courts. As Deputy Ó Broin said, this motion is not aimed at demonising young people, but there is a responsibility on many people, the youth included. The main responsibility, however, lies with the State to ensure that it properly invests in, helps and encourages the youth to go about their activities safely in order that they enjoy themselves. Facilities must be available to them in order that we do not end up as we do year on year coming up to Hallowe'en with absolute chaos in some parts of this city. This year the chaos started a lot earlier and comes on top of the issue of scramblers, the open drug dealing, attacks on people along the canals in my area and elsewhere and damage to playgrounds. Every single day since the middle of August, I have had constituents writing to me asking me to get the Garda to react to the targeting of their houses, their cars and other properties. Buses have been targeted with fireworks, which are very loud and very damaging. There has not seemed to be a proportionate response, or any response some nights, to any of these activities. People, especially the elderly, are in absolute fear and anxiety. Their dogs are fretting. Panic sets in. It is unbearable for many. In some cases people are targeted as they walk down the street because they have had the decency to ring and ask for help from An Garda Síochána. Still there is no response when they come under attack. Sometimes the roads are taken up with people firing fireworks at one another. In other cases people are targeted with bangers thrown at them and their children as they watch football matches. That is not good enough and the State has to act and defend the citizens who feel they are under attack. They do not just fear being under attack; in many cases they are under attack.

There is a reason this is happening. The cuts in Dublin South-Central had a consequence. Once there were 99 community gardaí. That dropped to a low of 28 two years ago. A police service cannot be run with such a low number of community gardaí. I therefore appeal to the Minister not just to support this motion but to act on it quickly in order that we do not end up seeing this problem escalate.

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