Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The streets of Dublin's north inner city have not been safe for a long time. The area is scourged by open drug dealing, drug-taking, on-street nuisance drinking, and constant and threatening antisocial behaviour. It is in this abnormal atmosphere that people go about their daily lives. People make their journeys to work and parents do the school drop-offs with the ever-present hum of menace, risk and an overriding lack of personal safety. Over the course of Fine Gael’s 12 years in government, people have been robbed of their safety. Garda stations have been closed or put on reduced hours. Community Garda numbers have been decimated. Gone are the days of the garda on the beat, which is the very bedrock of effective community policing. This has contributed to a general feeling of lawlessness and an unsafe environment. The response of the Government has been, at best, to skirt around the problem and, at worst, to completely abandon these communities.

The school community of Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire recognises well that low, relentless hum of danger and lack of safety. The children, parents and staff live with it every day. Thursday, 23 November started like any other day, but it turned out to be a day they will never forget. None of us will. Three small children and crèche manager, Leanne Flynn, were stabbed in broad daylight outside their school. Leanne bravely stood between the attacker and the children, risking her own life to save their young lives. Courageous members of the public, people who represent all that is good about Dublin, stepped in to apprehend the perpetrator and certainly prevented further harm.

What occurred in the aftermath of this horrific attack constituted a catastrophic and unprecedented collapse in public safety. Control of Dublin city centre was lost to a mob, which sought to exploit the attacks to sow hate and division. As those poor children and Leanne received emergency treatment in hospital, there was mayhem and destruction on the streets of our capital city. Garda cars, buses, and a Luas tram were burned out. Gardaí were assaulted, emergency responders were targeted, shops were looted and retail workers, transport workers and citizens were terrified. Everyone who stood their ground that evening deserves our praise and our thanks. Gardaí in particular are to be commended. They came under sustained attack. They were very much in the way of danger.

This riot was entirely predictable. It was coming. The instigators did not try to hide their intent. It was openly orchestrated immediately following the attacks, but there was no plan to respond. According to the Garda Representative Association, GRA, no central instruction was issued to gardaí. They were left to organise themselves on WhatsApp. It is clear this riot was compounded by the fact that not enough gardaí were at hand in order to support their colleagues. To be clear, I have full confidence in An Garda Síochána. I have zero confidence in the Minister for Justice. In any other walk of life, or in any other organisation, the person presiding over such a colossal failure would be sacked. Those who vote confidence in the Minister are endorsing grave failure.

Over the past 12 days, much has been said about the riots but not enough has been said about what happened earlier that day - the stabbing of three small children and Leanne Flynn. The gravity and trauma of this horrific attack has not been fully acknowledged or fully understood. It took nearly two weeks for the Government to reach out to the school community.

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