Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister and the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on their new roles. I wish them all the best.

We are living with the legacy of serious Government failures and the neglect of policing and community safety. These are failures of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. There have been fewer gardaí on the streets of Dublin since Fine Gael came into government. We are now getting mixed messages. The former Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, declared that Dublin is safe but the current Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, declared that some parts of our city are unsafe. Which is it?

The first thing you need to do to tackle a problem is to recognise there is a problem in the first place. I am a proud Dubliner and it hurts me to say there are parts of my city and county that are unsafe. The recent high-profile murder of a man in Dublin has brought media attention to safety in our city. The reality of the situation is that once a high-profile instance happens in the city, already scant Garda resources are pulled from other areas, including my own, leaving already traumatised communities feeling abandoned. If I know this, we have to believe that the criminals acting in my area know it too.

The Minister mentioned gangland feuds. Not all gangland feuds are hitting the media like the previous ones. In my area of Dublin Mid-West, there is an ongoing feud. I have lost count of how many homes in my area have been petrol-bombed in the past 12 months. Nobody should have to lose his or her home like that. In some instances, the wrong homes have been targeted. When this happens, the whole community goes into alert. Families and neighbours are terrified, wondering if they will be next. My community feels abandoned. An 11-day-old baby had to be evacuated after a recent arson attack. Shots are being fired across gardens in broad daylight. In another attack, a young boy was hacked with a machete in broad daylight. A man was charged with attempted murder after a hit-and-run incident. A 14-year-old boy was recently stabbed and brought to hospital in a serious condition. To add to the fear of and sense of lawlessness of our community, this has all played out on social media.

I wrote to the previous Minister for Justice last June and again in October to request a task force for the area. I contacted her again in November, when the 11-day-old child had to be evacuated after the arson attack. I contacted the current Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, after the 14-year-old boy was stabbed and all I got back were holding replies and no new resources for my area, which is already under siege.

One night last year we had one Garda car operating in the whole of Clondalkin and Ballyfermot, which is a huge area. This is simply not good enough. There are other parts of my constituency where residents are afraid. Gangs are terrorising their areas. Open drug dealing, nightly fires, intimidation, assaults and vandalism are regular occurrences. This is not antisocial behaviour, which is how it is being put out in the media; it is criminal activity. The local gardaí, in fairness to them, are doing their best with the resources they have, but they need more. We will not police our way out of this totally, but we need more gardaí. We need visible gardaí on the street so areas like mine can breathe.

As for other actions that can help our communities feel safe, as Deputy Carthy said we need to see the community safety partnerships up and running. Two weeks ago, when responding to my colleague, Deputy Doherty, at Leaders’ Questions, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, spoke about the progress of community safety partnerships, which look at community safety from a whole-of-community perspective. These vital cogs have not been set up. Despite the Minister’s predecessor’s response, the two biggest local authorities in this State have taken different roles to fill this vacuum by having no community safety partnerships. Dublin City Council has just continued with the old joint policing committee. South Dublin County Council has not done anything as of this moment and cites lack of direction from the Department of Justice. These forums are in place in order that local representative can hold the councils, the Garda, transport services and others to account. Will the Minister give clear instructions to local authorities to put in place community safety partnerships and stop this confusion once and for all?

We also need other actions on scramblers and e-scooters. These need to be regulated and policed. We need regulation on nitrous oxide. Having discarded so-called “laughing gas” canisters all over our communities gives another sense of lawlessness. I introduced legislation last term to stop these canisters ending up in the hands of our young people. I will be reintroducing it very soon and asking for Government support. We need targeted youth services. There are good examples of services that target young people not where people think they should be but exactly where they are at. I used to work in these services, but they cannot just be in pockets across Dublin; they need to be right across the whole city.

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