Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming in to take this important issue. There is a real sense of fear among residents in the City Quay area in particular. They are worried about the ongoing street violence that is occurring almost every day. They are virtually being held hostage. Last Saturday week, a young 13-year-old was hospitalised after being stabbed. Thankfully, he will make a full recovery, although I understand it will take a while. It is amazing that someone has not been killed because when you see the knives and weapons seized by the Garda it seems to only be a matter of time before some child or young person will be killed. Then there will be a big outcry and we will say that we should have done this or that. The reality is we need something done now.

I completely understand that there is no simple or overnight solution and people recognise that. Gangs of young people are rampaging and cycling through streets like Townsend Street and smashing cars for the sake of it, and because they can. It is unrelenting and it is unacceptable that residents have to put up with it. Action is needed. If these groups of youths were outside the Minister of State's house, my house or the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's house, it would not be allowed and it should not be allowed outside the homes of residents in City Quay. No one should have to put up with this issue. I accept that the Garda is in a difficult position in that the young people carrying out this street violence are almost all children, which brings challenges. The Garda needs to be resourced better right across the inner city. It needs more resources to work with young people and the community section of the Garda needs to be more involved.

More resources also need to be allocated to community development and youth work groups. It is hard to imagine, given what is happening in the south and north inner city, that the local Talk about Youth group has no dedicated space to work from. Talk about Youth does fantastic work with young people in the community yet it has no place to call home and no dedicated space. It needs a dedicated space in which it can develop its projects and work with young people who are particularly hard to engage with. There needs to be funding for assertive outreach teams to do work with young people who are resistant to engaging with traditional youth groups. There are some local children involved in this but the majority come from quite a distance from the city centre. This 13-year-old came from Dublin 15 to the inner city on a Saturday night. We are failing as a society and we are failing to work with young people to address the issues. The Mulvey report allocated funding and resources for the north inner city and that has to be replicated in the south inner city because the north and south inner city are one community.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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On behalf of the Minister for Justice, I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter on Dublin’s inner city and concerns around public safety. The Minister joins all of the House in condemning all acts of violence, in particular any forms of knife crime, and in wishing the victim of the incident referred to by the Deputy a healthy and speedy recovery. I am informed by the Garda authorities that an investigation is ongoing at this time and the Deputy will appreciate that neither I nor the Minister for Justice can comment on that case as it is an ongoing and live Garda investigation. The Minister and I urge anyone who may have witnessed this attack, or who may have any information of potential interest to An Garda Síochána, to contact the Garda. Reports can also be made through the Garda confidential line on 1800 666 111.

The Government is determined to tackle antisocial and violent behaviour and is conscious of the effect it can have on the quality of life for local communities, including in Dublin's inner city. Both the programme for Government and the justice plan contain a number of commitments in this regard, including the establishment of the expert forum on antisocial behaviour to consider the effectiveness of existing legislation and look at proposals for the way forward. I have established a subgroup of the antisocial behaviour forum to specifically examine the issue of knife crime in detail. This subgroup is assessing available evidence to inform legislation and community safety policies, programmes and practices with regard to knife crime. As the Deputy will be aware, the Youth Justice Strategy 2021-2027 was also launched last year with the immediate priority to enhance engagement with children and young people who are most at risk of involvement in criminal activity, principally by strengthening services available through the existing network of 105 youth diversion projects, a number of which are located in Dublin's inner city and a number of which I have visited in recent months.

It is important to note that policing and crime prevention are not the responsibility of An Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice alone. To achieve better outcomes, supported by a strong inter-agency collaboration and community engagement, three pilot local community safety partnerships have been established, one of which is located in north inner city Dublin.

These partnerships will provide a dedicated communication channel for input and the development of local community safety plans to reflect and respond to the self-identified needs of individual communities. The lessons which are learnt in the north inner city pilot will, of course, be of particular relevance to the future roll-out in the south inner city. In addition, the Minister will launch the community safety innovation fund in the coming weeks, which will enable local communities to seek funding for innovative projects that will improve community safety in their areas.

I am advised by the Garda authorities that Operation Citizen commenced in Dublin city centre on 22 October 2021, focusing on antisocial behaviour, public order and quality-of-life issues, assaults and high-volume crimes, and involves increased visible policing, particularly at key locations. In addition to Garda resources from the Dublin metropolitan region, DMR, north central and south central divisions, Operation Citizen is supported by resources from the wider Dublin region, Garda roads policing units, the Garda national public order unit and Garda operational support units.

In January 2022, the Garda authorities launched Operation Saul to further support, enhance and strengthen the strategic and operational objectives of Operation Citizen. The aim of Operation Saul is to provide a safe environment for commuters utilising public transport services in the DMR. Garda Operation Soteria is also in place to ensure a reduction of assaults in public, reduce the fear of violence within communities, prioritise assault investigations and focus on problem areas and assault hotspots. The Minister wants to assure the Deputy that this combination of targeted Garda operations and Government policy measures are having, and will continue to have, a positive impact on community safety.

Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein)
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Talk about Youth, which is a fantastic youth project in Pearse Street, has no dedicated space. The Minister of State said that he visited different youth clubs. I ask that he also visit the Talk about Youth project and see for himself the great work they do, their lack of resources and their needs, and perhaps work with them to ensure they can have a dedicated space to work with the local community and young people.

The north and south inner cities are one community. They need to be treated as one community, they need to be looked at as one community, and they need to be resourced as one community. I appreciate the measures the Minister of State outlined in his response, but the reality is that there are not enough gardaí on the streets in the inner city to avert the ongoing daily assaults of residences in City Quay. We can have all these projects and programmes in theory, but in practice, the residents are being held hostage on City Quay, Creighton Street, Townsend Street, Dowling's Court, and Lombard Street. It is not acceptable. They need action and more gardaí, and they need it now. I completely accept that it is not a simple solution. I proposed a while ago that the bridge should be opened so that it would divert them. People felt that they had moved to another bridge further down. That may be the case, but then it may not be the case if the gardaí are proactive and have the resources they badly need. The Mulvey report outlined that the north inner city should have extra resources. Equally, the south inner city should have the same resources because they are one community. The docklands authority, before it became a developers' charter, worked with north and south inner city communities and saw them as one, and that is what the Government needs to do.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I again thank the Deputy for raising this very important matter, about which I know he is deeply concerned. The Minister wants to be clear that the incidences of assault or intimidation are completely unacceptable. We want people to feel and be safe, whether they live or work in Dublin city centre or want to visit and enjoy our capital city.

Obviously, the distribution and management of gardaí is a matter for the Garda Commissioner, but as of 31 January 2022, the latest date for which figures are available, 712 Garda members were assigned to the DMR south central division. This represents an increase of more than 13.5% since December 2015, when 627 Garda members were assigned to the division.

The unprecedented €2 billion funding allocated for An Garda Síochána in budget 2022 reflects the commitment the Government has to increasing the number of gardaí throughout the country, including increasing the resources available to those gardaí to help them do their jobs. This will facilitate and fund the recruitment of 800 additional gardaí in the coming period, and 400 additional Garda staff. There is a policy within An Garda Síochána of hiring staff to release Garda members from administrative and desk duties and putting them back on to the front line, which has proven to be very effective. As the Deputy will be aware, a new recruitment campaign for An Garda Síochána has opened and I encourage people to apply.

The Minister is confident that the continued concerted focus on further increasing the number of Garda members and staff, together with the ongoing redeployment of gardaí from administrative to front-line roles, will help strengthen the gardaí and strengthen the focus on community policing. This will deliver significant growth in the operational policing hours nationwide and improve visibility and services to local communities across the country, including Dublin city centre.