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

The role of the wardens will be to support gardaí and the community and not to arrest. Their role is to engage and observe. To say that nothing is happening is the perception or narrative that is being put out. We opened the new Garda station on O'Connell Street. This was something that we had prioritised to ensure there is visibility on our main thoroughfare. Since then there have been 417 individual proactive foot and mountain bike patrols. We have had 1,191 persons arrested, 2,366 charges and 930 summons. We have had 163 juvenile liaison officer referrals and 90 adult cautions. This is just since the new Garda station opened on O'Connell Street. This does not take into account the large amount of work that has been happening over the past two years under Operation Citizen. It does not take into account the large amount of work done through Operation Saul, which is to complement this with regard to public transport. There is also the undercover policing work that is being done with regard to drug dealing and the lower types of incidents that are happening. I cannot commend the Garda enough for the large amount of work being done but it does have to work in tandem with all of the other areas. Even though the plan has not yet been launched through the community safety partnership, there is work afoot through the local authority and others to try to address some of the issues in the city centre.

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