Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Minister for Justice, I thank Deputy Gannon for raising this matter today. Dublin city and its surroundings are a hive of business and tourism, particularly at this time of year. Equally, there is a strong community created by local residents. We want the city to be a safe place for people to live in, work in and visit.

The Deputy will be aware that today the Taoiseach announced the creation of a task force for Dublin city centre. The goal of the task force is to make Dublin city centre a more thriving, attractive and safer cityscape and a desirable location to live in, work in, do business and visit. The high-level task force, taking an evidence-based approach to its work, will make clear and concrete recommendations on improving the city centre's public realm safety and experience within a 12 week timeframe. This will draw on current plans and submissions and will complement work already under way in the Dublin city co-ordination office. It will also take full account of existing initiatives such as Dublin's North-East inner city initiative and the Dublin north inner city local community safety partnership. David McRedmond, the chief executive of An Post, has agreed to serve as independent chair of the task force. The overall membership will be a maximum of 12 people, to include the public service including An Garda Síochána, local authority representatives and the National Transport Authority, business and trade union representatives, community and service provider representatives and cultural and arts providers.

Community safety is not solely the responsibility of the Department of Justice or An Garda Síochána, rather it is a whole-of-government responsibility. The Government is committed to taking action to tackle crime across the country. This action includes giving An Garda Síochána the tools and technology to fight crime in a digital era by rolling out improved CCTV and body-worn cameras, doubling the maximum sentence for assault causing harm to ten years, giving local people and local representatives a real say in how to make their communities safer through new community safety partnerships, and enacting the Garda powers Bill that is currently being drafted to modernise and update the powers available to An Garda Síochána.

An Garda Síochána maintains a proactive approach to policing the city centre in order to reduce crime and keep people safe. A number of important Garda operations are in place in Dublin city centre and the wider Dublin metropolitan region. For example, Operation Citizen which commenced in October 2021 is delivering an enhanced high-visibility policing presence in the city centre on a daily basis. Members of the Garda mounted unit, the Garda dog unit, the armed support unit and the Dublin metropolitan regional roads policing unit support Operation Citizen by way of high-visibility beats and mobile patrols, especially at weekends and in support of organised events. The Garda national public order unit is also available to support regular units and has recently been issued with larger capacity incapacitant spray and smaller public order shields. In addition, Operation Limmat under the Dublin metropolitan region's crime reduction strategy provides a pro-arrest and early investigation approach to incidents of assault, together with driving high-visibility policing in public places to act as a deterrent to prevent and reduce assaults and public order offences in the region. The Garda authority has also launched Operation Saul which has the aim of providing a safe environment for commuters using public transport services in the Dublin metropolitan region.

I want to be clear that incidents of assault, intimidation or violence in our capital city are completely unacceptable and can never become the norm. The Government is committed to ensuring An Garda Síochána has the resources it needs to combat and prevent crime and to keep us safe.

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