Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When I was in this Chamber last Thursday, I saw on my phone that a violent incident was occurring in Dublin city centre. Within a half an hour, it was clear that a stabbing had occurred and that young children had been injured. At that stage I thought to myself, if it turns out to be a person from abroad who has carried out this attack, the far right will go on the rampage. If I could see that, how did senior Garda management not foresee it? The reality is that a relatively small number of gardaí were put in danger last Thursday by being ill-equipped and understaffed in a dangerous and volatile situation. A very sinister atmosphere came over Dublin city. Shop assistants, bus drivers, Luas drivers and hospitality workers, particularly those workers with a different ethnic background, were all put at serious risk of injury. The irony is that some of those who showed up in their droves to riot and loot probably used the same public transport vehicles they later burnt to a cinder.

People do not feel safe in Dublin city and have not for some time. Racist abuse is something many workers in our health and transport services and across all employment sectors have been dealing with for years. This atmosphere has been generated by an organised group with a specific fascist agenda. It has most recently focused on male asylum seekers and immigrants as being dangerous and to be feared. This, unfortunately, has gained traction in many places. Let us not forget that it is a very short distance from fear to hatred and then on to people being attacked. Those who fan the flames of racial fear are also fanning the flames of racial hatred.

Gardaí have also been the target of these fascists, being described online as paedophiles and groomers and abused regularly at the racist and angry gatherings they hold. I commend the ordinary gardaí who tried to maintain the integrity of a serious crime scene while faced with serious and sustained abuse and vicious physical assaults. I also extend my solidarity to the emergency services and transport workers who came under attack last week when they tried to bring ordinary people home from work or to medical appointments or, in some circumstances, just tried to get them to safety.

Clearly, the strategy that senior gardaí have employed to deal with far-right activity has been a failure. Last Thursday, there was clear evidence of that failure. It is also evidence of the catastrophic outcome of under-resourcing and depletion of garda numbers to carry out basic policing services. We all agree that the people who are responsible for the riot are those who carried it out, and of course they have to be held accountable and jailed, but the circumstances under which this emboldened hatred and violent extremism have been allowed to develop are the responsibility of those in authority, and that is this Government, the Minister and the Garda Commissioner.

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