Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Thursday was a very dark day for Ireland. It was one of the saddest days I have ever witnessed. As I stand here tonight, my thoughts are with the innocent people who have been injured and it is my deepest hope that they all fully recover.

A cloud has descended over Dublin. It is a cloud that we must all work together to lift. The tragedy of last Thursday began with a senseless and violent attack on children. The day ended with the collapse of law and order in our capital city. The challenge is one that everyone in the Oireachtas must embrace. It is a battle against thuggery, lawlessness and the hate-filled ideology that seeks to divide people rather than unite them. This is a battle against the spread of hate, fear and misinformation. We need to build and strengthen communities and not divide them. We need to resource our communities properly, reverse cuts to community groups, youth services and drug and addiction services. We cannot and should not treat this solely as a policing issue.

As I have said, on Thursday a cloud descended over our capital. By the evening, during the vicious attack on children, we saw some rays of light seep through. We saw them in the acts of an educator, a delivery driver, a nurse and others, who put their lives on the line to protect these children. We thank them for bravery. It is past time, however, that we get to grips with the type of criminality that is egged on by the far-right fascists.

The Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, said that we could not have anticipated these events. For too long, the Garda Commissioner has paid scant attention to the far right in Ireland. The lack of leadership on Thursday put many members of An Garda Síochána, transport, hospitality, retail and community workers and ordinary people in serious danger. Fine Gael, the so-called party of law and order, has been responsible for the Department of Justice for 12 years. In that time, their light-touch approach has seen Garda numbers reduced, police stations being shut and many communities being abandoned. Fine Gael has let the far right cause so much hurt and division. Where was the Garda response when our libraries were targeted and threatened? These thugs literally sailed up the River Shannon to hassle library staff.

Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire, its staff and students, must be offered all necessary supports to get them through this trauma. It is a school at the centre of a decent, vibrant and hard-working community. These are decent people, the huge majority of whom are utterly appalled not just at the vicious attack on Thursday but the destructive behaviour that followed into the night. The horrific attack on children was used cynically to incite hatred, violence and provoke looting and destruction. The hatred has been brewing for years. It has been allowed through online discourse where facts are ignored and distorted and mistruths are not challenged, and where it is open season in the context of abusing people on social media. This is not who are, and it is never who we will be. To those looters, rioters and, especially, their ringleaders, I say that Caio Benicio, an immigrant and hard-working man, is a hero. You claim you stood up for Ireland by looting stores and burning the Luas, but you did not stand up for protecting our most vulnerable.

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