Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being a bit tardy in my attendance this evening. I heard the Minister's backbench colleague tell us that we need to send a strong message and indeed we do. I also heard him say that he has been dealing with this matter for years, which highlights the effectiveness of the measures taken to counter this problem. Everywhere we go, the skies are lit up at night and pets, children with special needs and elderly people are terrified. People are afraid to go out.

The Minister said we have strong and robust laws in place to deal with this issue but, with the greatest of respect, we must not be using them because if they were strong, robust and effective, people would not have unlicensed fireworks. Fireworks would not be going off in the Ballast Pit, beside where I live, or in Balbriggan, Swords, Lusk, Rush and right across my constituency if the law was being applied. Part of the problem is that we do not have sufficient numbers of community gardaí. Due to reassignments, there are only 11 community gardaí in my area in north Dublin. That is the crux of this matter.

We must be careful not to demonise young people because they have been left without services and with nothing to do. Their schools were closed for a long time. It is important that, instead of focusing on the trauma, damage and everything else, we focus on enforcing the law that is in place and resourcing the Garda to ensure it can do that. With the greatest of respect to the Minister's colleague, if the House wants to send a strong message, Deputies will back the motion. That will send a clear message that gardaí must be resourced and our young people can be on the street and have the kind of fun they should have but not in a way that causes torture and torment to other people, including the elderly and other neighbours.

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