Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

----- in dealing with a very serious and grave situation last evening, where the Deputy correctly said, innocent people were threatened in terms of their own safety and security, particularly children, and also the surrounding neighbourhoods where walls were apparently damaged for people to get missiles to throw against the gardaí.

The gardaí come from our community. They are there to protect us all. It beggars belief that these people would articulate such vile abuse of members of An Garda Síochána and would then attack them in a very serious way which could cause injury and damage if they did not have their protective clothing. It needs to be dealt with robustly. We are very clear, and the Minister for Justice, Deputy O'Callaghan, is very clear we are in total solidarity with An Garda Síochána and that our criminal justice system needs to hold the people responsible for last evening to account. We wish the female garda who was injured the very best. It was a very difficult situation those young gardaí faced last evening and they should not have to face that.

Also, it is a matter of genuine and sincere concern the alleged assault on a ten-year old-girl but the whole circumstances surrounding that is a matter of deep concern and our thoughts are with that ten-year-old young child and her family and so on. Our job in the State is to protect and support that child. That child, in my observation, was not protected by the State and that is it. I do not mean that is it - I am calling it that way. We then have to respond as a State to that.

I have been consistently raising this issue, certainly for a long time but with greater intensity in the past number of months, of the attacks on ethnicity and I have condemned attacks on people because of their ethnicity, colour or creed. I have met with different groups who have articulated concerns to me. Young people, in the context of the child poverty group that was formed, have told me the fears they have. I do not like using this phrase but these are Irish citizens who may be of a different ethnicity - Asian ethnicity or whatever, it does not matter - but the point I am trying to make is they were articulating to me they were afraid to go into town. Some of their siblings were afraid of being chased home from schools. Employees are being attacked. Employers have reported this to me.

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