Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féín for bringing forward this Private Members' motion on community safety and fireworks which I will be supporting. I also support the call by the National Youth Council of Ireland for more investment in youth services. That call is set out in the amendment tabled by Solidarity-People Before Profit. This issue is not only one for now but is a general issue about youth services and how they are funded and supported.

I concur with the point made by many Deputies on the impact of illegal fireworks in the community. Depending on who is using them, these fireworks are used to target houses, people, dogs and other animals. It seems they are used differently depending on who gets their hands on them. The widespread use of fireworks has created a general belief in communities that people are able to get and use them with impunity.

I have had reports about an incident in a local park at the beginning of September where fireworks were used against families and children in a playground. The families were forced to flee. I am regularly contacted on social media by people who have been targeted with bangers while walking their dogs in the park. Some of them believe these are attempts to disorientate the dogs and then entrap them if they run off. We have animals, elderly people and people with sensory issues who are stressed in their homes. That this is happening creates a general disquiet in the community. That is the mood in communities and there is a view that this not being dealt with. This is happening all over Dublin. I have seen it in St. Anne's Park, on the north side and south side, in the Liberties up to Rialto and Ballyfermot and into Drimnagh and Crumlin. It is taking place all over my constituency where there is not one area that has not been impacted.

I recognise that Operation Tombola, which involves the local authorities and takes place before Hallowe'en every year, was brought forward to 4 September. That was a positive development but many people who contacted me are not positive that the Garda response team is dealing with the situation because it continues night after night. It has been going on every night since the second last week in August. It is happening on an industrial scale. The number of fireworks being set off in communities is quite staggering. It has been said that many fireworks are being sold across the Border in Northern Ireland because there is an abundance of them left over from 12 July. I support the call to establish a joint task force between An Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI, under Operation Tombola to combat the distribution and sale of illegal fireworks and bangers if they are coming across the Border. That is specifically mentioned in the Sinn Féin motion. I was a bit concerned to read in the Minister of State, Deputy Brown's, contribution that the Minister, Deputy McEntee, had been informed by the Garda Commissioner that this specific issue would be discussed at the strategic level at a forthcoming meeting of the cross-Border joint agency task force and strategic oversight group in the coming days. I would have expected this matter to be discussed a month ago rather than in the coming days because it has been going on for so long. I am disappointed it is only happening now.

The distribution and sale of fireworks must be tackled. That is how one stops it. It must be interrupted and stopped and intelligence must be gathered on where fireworks are being stored. I contacted our superintendent in Kevin Street Garda station who said there had been arrests and follow-up. Every night, however, we still hear fireworks and bangers going off at the same level.

I will make a particular point on the National Youth Council of Ireland and its pre-budget submission. It makes the point there is youth employment of over 37.8% arising from the pandemic. It points out that the numbers of young people aged between ten and 24 in the State continues to grow so demand for youth services grows. The youth population is expected to grow by 4.6% by 2025 and reach more than 1 million. That figure is taken from the census. The submission states that while there have been limited increases an investment in recent years, funding for youth work in 2020 is 15% below what it was in 2008. That is a terrible indictment of the austerity cuts over that period. Funding amounts to just €1.23 per young person between the ages of ten and 24. The submission further states that only 2% or €12 million of the additional €574 million allocated to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs between 2014 and 2020 has been provided for youth work.

It is calling for an additional €4.7 million to be provided for youth services in the budget for 2021.

The number of parents of young people who have contacted us over the past six months has been phenomenal. These families are living in overcrowded conditions and the Covid restrictions, which tie them to their homes, have made living at home unbearable. They are literally begging to get a house from the housing list. There is nothing we can do because houses are not being built in the numbers that are needed. All these economic issues are coming to bear.

The Government must invest in youth services and youth workers to support young people. The Government must also invest in more community policing. This is one of the areas of policing that has worked very well. It is outrageous that only 710 gardaí are involved in community policing across the State now as compared with 1,180 in 2010 and in the Dublin metropolitan region the number of community police has decreased by 45% from 508 in 2010 to 278 now. We are now seeing the consequences of not having that community policing working with the community and community groups, and not having the task forces allowing people to know what is happening locally in the area. Community policing was probably the most successful part of the work of the Garda.

In Dublin South-Central, as has been mentioned already, we had 99 community gardaí ten years ago and we are down to 28. We have a number of issues in the area with open drug dealing along the canal, etc. When we only have 28 community police in the whole Dublin South-Central area, it does not work and we need those resources in the area.

The Government's amendment states that under Operation Tombola, the Garda has put in place local operational plans to tackle the sale of fireworks, including through high-visibility policing and utilising the divisional public order units as appropriate. The Minister is clearly not living in the community because that is not happening. I live in Inchicore and I am not aware of visibility of police in the area. I have not seen an increase over the last month. It is not happening because the resources are not there; they are stretched on the ground. That needs to be looked at. The Sinn Féin motion makes the point that we need people moved from behind desks to being out in the community. We need more community policing. I support the motion, particularly the emphasis on what is needed in our youth services and the youth facilities in the communities which have been drastically reduced.

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