Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Right now, a five-year-old girl is fighting for her life. I know everyone here has that young girl, her family and the other children in Thursday’s attacks at the front of their minds. We thank those who stopped the attack. What happened afterwards on Thursday evening should not have occurred. Those who took part represent only a small minority.

Control of the situation was lost, and the Commissioner must take responsibility for that. The Minister must take responsibility for the confines in which our gardaí had to operate. Yet, the Minister will not even admit that control was lost. Instead, she said she was taken by surprise. Communities have been raising their concerns with the Minister and the Garda Commissioner, so for her to play down her responsibility for what happened is disingenuous. As events started to unfold, anyone who had an eye on social media knew from the moment of the awful attack that the far right was organising mayhem. They have no cause and are only looking for any little spark to cause trouble. The intelligence was there. The Commissioner was warned of the rise of the far right, yet the response was inadequate. There were clear organisational deficiencies and the commissioner’s approach to the far right and his response to the concerns of the local community is a failure.

On the Minister’s watch, Garda recruitment targets for this year will be missed yet again. Gardaí are unhappy with the resources they are given, and morale has fallen as a result. However, the Minister’s failings stretch beyond Dublin. On Thursday, gardaí had to be drawn from north Tipperary to bolster the response to the events in the capital, leaving other communities with even fewer gardaí than they had to begin with. Furthermore, I am told that Tipperary needs additional gardaí, but there are concerns that it is be unlikely to get any for the next 12 to 18 months because most graduates are being dragged up to Dublin. If this is the Government’s answer to policing, it will fail us all.

Elsewhere, particularly in my town of Cashel, I have been told that at least five more gardaí are needed in order to provide an adequate service. In reply to a parliamentary question, the Minister told that me that Cashel Garda station is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week when it is only open for ten hours a week. We must question how detached the Minister is from her Department or from the reality in which people live. We need a new approach. That is why the Minister and the Commissioner must go. I thank our gardaí. We in Sinn Féin have faith in the Garda and all our emergency services, council workers and bus drivers. They and the public need better leadership. The latter has not been displayed today.

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