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

First, I wish to condemn outright those who were involved yesterday evening and every other night and day in rallying robbed cars through the neighbourhood of Cherry Orchard. Thankfully, nobody has been seriously injured in this ongoing spate of criminal behaviour by youths in the area. As anybody who watched the lawlessness of the joyriders as they raced up and down the road in the housing estate yesterday evening, all would have been thinking that it was lucky that there were not multiple victims in hospital, or even in the morgue today.

This has been ongoing for a number of weeks and months. The gardaí in the squad car must have been very shook up because it looked as if the criminals were intent on doing serious damage to the car and injury to those inside.

It is a pity, however, that it took to ramming of a Garda car for the authorities to sit up and take notice. This has been, as I have said, ongoing for a number of months with little visible impact from the minor actions the Garda has taken to date. Only two weeks ago I raised this matter with An Garda directly in a local policing forum and I know that my colleague, Councillor Daithí Doolan, who is chair of the local policing forum and who was injured by one of these gangs when he interceded on behalf of a besieged constituent, has been contacting the Garda morning, noon and night when a robbed car is spotted rallying and endangering children in the area.

More gardaí and more Garda resources are required. One squad car is not enough for the whole of Ballyfermot. Two gardaí in a car going to tackle three racing, robbed cars and being cheered on by 50 or 60 people, is not enough. No visible patrols for most of the year is not good enough. Accelerated planning and delivery of the Cherry Orchard local area plan needs to happen, including additional resources and extensions for St. Ultan’s Primary School. There also is a need for shops. Approximately 40 years after this area was built, there are no shops, barbers, hairdressers, butchers, cafés or anything like that. That shows this area has been neglected and that neglect must end.

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