Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support this motion of confidence in my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Helen McEntee. It is very easy for the Opposition to say that the Minister and the Garda should have known that a major public order incident was going to break out in Dublin city centre, but how could they? How could they foretell the malign intent of some people that led them to incite a riot, especially following a tragedy where children and their care worker were so brutally attacked in the middle of the day?

Gardaí have successfully policed more than 700 protests so far this year. Some of these protests have been bad-tempered, with individual colleagues across this House directly targeted, but there have been no expressions of support from those in Sinn Féin for our front-line gardaí. Why? It is because they cannot acknowledge good policing and because they want to politicise, personalise and attack not only the Minister for Justice but the Garda Commissioner.

I also want to raise one particular aspect of Sinn Féin's reaction to recent events. As part of my brief in the Department of Health, I meet with people in drug and alcohol addiction and also provide the services to help them. I have never posted a picture or video on social media of a vulnerable person in need of help. Sinn Féin, on the other hand, last week used a picture of a clearly identifiable and vulnerable man for a cheap publicity stunt. It was posted on the Sinn Féin leader’s social media account, which has almost 200,000 followers, and waved around this House during Leaders’ Questions. A baseless connection was made between someone in addiction being a danger to children and the wider public. An innocent person was put forward as someone to be feared and avoided.

We know the truth now. The mask of Sinn Féin has slipped. It is clear that there is not one vulnerable group that Sinn Féin will not use for their own political ends. That man is someone's son, perhaps someone's brother or someone's father. God knows what he is going through. You used him. How nasty, how cheap, how typically Sinn Féin.

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