Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We were all horrified when we heard that a woman and three junior and senior infants had been stabbed in broad daylight outside their school last Thursday. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. Once it was leaked that the attacker had not been born in Ireland, anyone could have predicted what followed. That is, anyone except this Government and the Garda Commissioner, who insist, despite all the evidence, that Garda resources are adequate and that Dublin is safe.

The far right was quick to mobilise and a riot ensued. The scene of that horrific crime was vulnerable. Gardaí were attacked. They were under-resourced, underequipped and facing lawlessness on a large scale with the city centre on fire. I take that personally, given how my dad was a garda. The sight of the garda on his own on the bridge was frightening.

It was okay for the Government to ignore the far right agitating in deprived areas when the latter was just roaring about Sinn Féin and the left, but now the Government has to sit up because the far right is attacking property. There is more to Dublin than just property, though. It is a living city with a breathing community, some of whom feel they have no stake in society and are alienated. They know that the political class hates them, which is confirmed by the chattering classes smirking at their tracksuits and the jokes about not looting the bookshops. Maybe some people need someone to hate because they are tired of being the ones at the bottom of the barrel. We all want accountability, and those who broke the law the other night must face the law. There is no time for cotton wool for them. However, we also want political accountability and we need a change in political direction. We need investment in communities that yields opportunity and equality because no one should feel like a second-class citizen in a republic, especially the children of Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire who experienced that horror last week. No schoolchildren in deprived communities can be abandoned to be easily groomed by the far right. We owe them that much. They need to know they have a place in this Republic. People need hope, not despair, but when I look across the floor, I see a rudderless Government that is in the political doldrums, is disinterested and has left a power vacuum that has been quickly filled by the far right. We have more in common with those who have made Ireland their home and are healthcare workers, bus drivers, hairdressers and retail and office workers than we ever will with the blind, unreasoning, scaredy-cat hatred of the far right and its so-called patriots with their dark work and useful idiots, paid for in shiny gold bars, and who stir the pot but never turn up except to lick the spoon. We all need to feel safe, and Dublin is not safe at the moment.

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