Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like many people from Dublin, I am still slightly traumatised by the events of last week. When word came through of a stabbing incident on Parnell Square, I wanted to be with my own five-year-old daughter as quickly as I possibly could. As soon as certain so-called media outlets went out of their way to reveal the nationality of this individual, I knew there was going to be trouble. We all knew. What we witnessed on Thursday evening was like seeing a family member being beaten up in front of our eyes. The next day, reeling from that, it was not in the Labour Party's mind to start calling for heads, for resignations or for people to go because at the forefront of our minds was our city, which was still recovering from an assault. We want to point the finger of prioritisation where it needs to be pointed, but we need to speak about a number of failures up until last Thursday and what we feel are failures since then.

Let us talk about the far right. Let us talk about library protests and libraries in Cork that have had to shut down because of library protests. Has there been any attempt by the Government, within the capabilities it has, to tackle that, to provide information about the genuine distribution of books within libraries and to cut those protests off at source? No. What we then had at accommodation centres around the country was vile and violent language, with people consistently saying that the only way to sort this out was to burn them out. That has been consistent over time, and that effectively did happen around the corner from here. Was there an effective tackling of that? No. They came here on the day of the opening of the Dáil in September and they interfered with Members of the Oireachtas. Now we have the pathetic sight of security barriers outside Leinster House, which looks to me like we have surrendered to them. That is what we have to look at now at the national Parliament. Those barriers need to be taken down. All the while there are celebrities such as Conor McGregor, a gobdaw, and people in this Chamber who use the words "criminality" and "immigration" in the same sentence as often as they can to get some cheap political gain for themselves. Yes, I am talking about the rural Independents and Members of the Seanad who do the exact same thing. For the love of God, would they realise that some things are more important than them winning their bloody seats?

All this is being whipped up all the time, and then there is an absolute collapse in Garda morale. We came within an inch of Garda overtime not being used for every Tuesday during October, which would have included Hallowe'en, which in turn would have absolutely destroyed the policing potential of An Garda Síochána on Hallowe'en night. We have had 116 resignations, unprecedented numbers, up to the end of October. A couple of years ago it was only 70. We will now face a doubling of that number by the end of this year, and we are not talking about early retirements. Every Garda representative organisation says there is a problem at the heart of their organisation. If they are in it, they want to leave; if they are not in it, they do not want to join; and they are resigning in unprecedented numbers, all on the Minister's watch. She had a disastrous public relations episode during the summer when it came to the issue of antisocial behaviour in Dublin city centre.

All of us knew as soon as people went out of their way - with glee - to inform us of the origin of the individual at the heart of this attack that the place was going to go up.

For anybody to suggest that what happened on Thursday night was in any way a surprise is absolutely delusional.

We heard a statement from the Minister on Saturday night that spoke about dog units, horse units and water cannons. Is she serious? We then heard a statement about facial recognition technology. Is the Minister really suggesting that any of those things are going to deal with the far right? There is an absence of a leadership campaign from the Government to dispel the lies that are going on in individual communities. Is the Government doing anything to deal with that? The Government has completely isolated the Minister for integration, who does not seem to get any support across government. It seems that the Government wants anything to do with integration and immigration to be the problem of the Minister for integration and nobody else. When all these stories about unvetted individuals and males coming into communities circulate, we do not get a build-up of correction or information to fill the vacuum left by the Government. Who fills the vacuum? The far right, the poison, does. Those people are reaching out through whatever social media outlet they can find in order to spread bile. They are getting an army and can raise it in a number of hours, which is exactly what they did on Thursday, because the Government is not tackling those people by way of information or by way of Garda numbers.

What do we need after last week? We need recognition from the Government that it has absolutely failed Dublin. My city, my Dublin, my part of the world, is dying on the watch of the Government. People cannot get teachers, houses or gardaí. The city was already dying and is now on fire on the watch of the Government because it does not get Dublin. It does not understand her. It just does not.

What I need from the Minister is recognition that she has failed and that we need a proper independent report on what happened last Thursday. If the Government wants to take the politics out of it, let us do that and have somebody independently assess what on earth happened on Thursday, how it was so predictable and how the city went on fire. The Minister said in her speech that it will not happen again. Is she out of her mind? Does she know how buoyant those people are? Does she know what happened to Deputy McDonald in East Wall last night? Does she know what happened to Deputy Gino Kenny in Clondalkin last night? Has the Minister knowledge of what happened? Those people are buoyant because they got their way. They got their spectacular and want more. If the Government does not think that what is happening with certain people with authority and who are irresponsible in places such as Rosslare or Dromahair in Leitrim, people who are still whipping up tensions all over the country, can happen again, it does not know what it is talking about. We want an independent review and report into what happened last Thursday. We want the Government to get serious about Garda numbers. If the issue is about pay and pensions, the Government should deliver pay and pension reform. The gas thing is, as we all know, if Drew Harris were to resign tomorrow, we would not get somebody to do his job. We cannot get people to fill senior positions within An Garda Síochána as it is.

It is not easy for us to say all of this. We did not reach for political soundbites on Friday when it would have been easy to do so. The city was smouldering. We are all bloody heartbroken over it. However, the Government cannot say this was not coming. It cannot say it has not been overseeing a beleaguered Garda force. Everyone has been telling the Government it is beleaguered, undermanned and under-resourced, and people want to get the hell out of the organisation. The Government cannot say that the far right has not been active in libraries, accommodation centres and in individual constituencies, and targeting Members of the Oireachtas. Does the Government know that many of us here are unsure as to whether we should speak out about the far right? We know they may come for us as well. That is how dangerous this is. Local election candidates are now worried about their addresses being made public. If the Government does not think this was coming, it does not know what it is talking about. The Government needs to wake up and realise that this threat is not going away. It does not get Dublin. The Garda force is falling apart. The far right is buoyant and the Government needs to take responsibility for that.

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