Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

There has been a suggestion from the Government that the problem with the policing on Thursday night in Dublin was that gardaí are in some way hesitant about the use of force. That struck me as strange. They were not hesitant about using force against striking Debenhams workers, who were overwhelmingly women. They were not hesitant about using force against the community of Rossport, County Mayo, when it was standing up to Shell. They were not hesitant about using force against many anti-water charges protesters. They were not even hesitant about using force against rough sleepers on Thursday night. It seems this hesitancy is only reserved for the far right. It seems that comes right from the top of An Garda Síochána, from an explicit strategy, according to the Commissioners, of not "falling into the trap" of far-right protesters, and of using a softly, softly approach. What that has looked like is allowing far right agitators to disrupt people going about their work, escorting far right agitators into a library in Swords, County Dublin, past anti-fascist protesters, permitting them to harass pharmacists, permitting them to board buses and permitting them to harass homeless migrants. No new laws are needed. It is not a question of new hate speech laws. It is not a question of facial recognition technology. The people who incited the riot on Thursday night did so in their own names on social media, and are easily identifiable. There are now people mounting checkpoints in Dromahair, County Leitrim, asking people for their passports. That is not legal, and An Garda should be stopping it.

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