Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I regret that once again, I have to speak in this House on the level of violence in our capital city. A dangerous level of unprovoked and gratuitous violence is being perpetrated against people who are socialising in Dublin at night time. Three weeks ago, a 23 year old man was viciously assaulted on Dame Street after he had been subjected to homophobic abuse. That young man had his left eye socket fractured. On the same night, an Italian man was also attacked around in the same vicinity. Two weeks ago, a 24 year old English man was gratuitously assaulted on D'Olier Street and is now in hospital fighting for his life.

We need to understand what is happening. Gangs of youths who believe they are immune to apprehension are prowling Dublin city at night time looking for people to attack. They are misogynistic towards women, they are homophobic towards gay people and they are particularly seeking to target men in their late teens to their 30s who are on their own or just with one other person. We need to understand that part of the solution is that Dublin needs to become more like other European cities. If you go to other European cities you see a good number of policemen policing those city centres at night time. We do not have enough gardaí on the streets at night time.

I thank the Minister of State for coming here today but I would ask him to get the answer back to the Minister for Justice and, through her, to the Garda Commissioner, that we need to see more gardaí in Dublin city centre at night time. I do not want to see Gardaí at meetings at night time or stuck in Garda stations. I want to see them out patrolling the inner city. I fear that we will not get a strong enough response until regrettably a tourist is killed in this city. If it is not checked or challenged, Dublin will get a terrible name as a place of violence. It will damage our tourism industry and will also damage us as a place for foreign direct investment. We need tougher and stronger policing and stronger sentencing.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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It is not only in the city but also the suburbs. Tallaght Garda Station, the main Garda station in my constituency along with Rathfarnham Garda station, was designed in the 1970s and built in the 1980s. It is completely outdated. The Garda in Tallaght now take two floors of the Plaza Hotel, adjacent to Tallaght Garda station in order to be able to fulfil the functions they must fulfil. It is not just that. City West, a sprawling suburb which is growing exponentially and really quickly because of strategic housing developments there, has no Garda station. It needs a station serving that particular area and doing so exclusively because it is quite remote from Tallaght. There is a lot of anti-social behaviour, particularly in relation to some of the Luas stops, which I will return to.

I hope that the Minister of State will feed my next point on Garda numbers back to the Minister, and she in turn to the Garda Commissioner. When compared with towns and cities of similar size such as Limerick, Tallaght simply does not have the proportionate amount of gardaí to serve the area and the surrounding area. The numbers in Tallaght are significantly below comparative sized cities. Furthermore, because of duty commitments on the Russian Embassy which is covered by Rathfarnham Garda station, up to ten gardaí per week are committed to surveillance and coverage of the Russian Embassy because of the whole Ukrainian crisis and protests around it. There are quiet protests which are legitimate. But these Garda personnel who are committed to this duty, with two per shift at least, as well as other surveillance coverage, I am sure, have not been compensated for in Rathfarnham Garda station. Therefore every day there are two gardaí over two shifts and, I am sure there are others involved, totally committed to coverage of the Russian embassy who should be on duty, patrolling the streets, and who should be keeping the people of Tallaght and Rathfarnham and all the adjoining areas safe.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputies for raising this important issue. The Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, and I utterly condemn the deplorable violent attacks that took place in Dublin city centre over Easter and wish the victims of these incidents a healthy recovery. People should be able to feel safe and be safe, whether they live or work in Dublin, or want to visit and enjoy our capital city.

I urge anyone who may have witnessed these or any other violent incidents in Dublin city recently, 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.

I can assure the Deputies that matters of community safety are taken very seriously by the Government and Departments and agencies are continually exploring policy, legislative and operational measures to combat all forms of violence.

This Government’s commitment to tackle public disorder-related issues and anti-social behaviour is reflected in Justice Plan 2022, which the Minister for Justice published recently. The plan contains a number of actions relating to combatting crime and strengthening community safety, including those relating to the ongoing work of the anti-social behaviour forum, the progression of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill and the continuing implementation of the youth justice strategy 2021-2027.

Gardaí continue to implement high-visibility policing plans to address public disorder-related issues and antisocial behaviour in Dublin city centre, with particular overt and targeted policing of public places at times when public order incidents and antisocial behaviour typically increase, such as bank holiday weekends. The Deputies will, of course, appreciate that the allocation of Garda resources is a matter for the Garda Commissioner. However, the Deputy may wish to note that Garda members and Garda staff in both Dublin metropolitan region, DMR, north central and south central have seen an increase in resources since 2012. North central had an increase of over 2% for Garda members and 67.5% for Garda staff, and south central had an increase of over 2% for Garda members and 281% for Garda staff.

In addition, a range of Garda operations are in place in Dublin city centre to tackle violent and antisocial behaviour in our capital. Operation Citizen commenced in Dublin city centre in October 2021 and places a particular focus on antisocial behaviour, public order and quality-of-life issues, assaults and high-volume crimes, and involves increased visible policing, particularly at key locations. Operation Saul, launched in January this year, supports Operation Citizen in targeting antisocial behaviour to provide a safe environment for commuters utilising public transport services within the Dublin metropolitan region. Operation Soteria is also in place to ensure a reduction of assaults in public, reduce fear of violence within communities, prioritise assault investigations and focus on problem areas and assault hotspots.

As the Deputies will be aware, north inner-city Dublin is also one of three pilot locations where local community safety partnerships have been established. These partnerships bring together residents, community representatives, business interests, councillors, local authorities and State services, such as An Garda Síochána, Tusla and the HSE, to devise and implement local community safety plans. The plans detail how best the community can prevent crime and will reflect community priorities and local safety issues. The aim of this approach is to make communities safer for families, residents and businesses. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I believe the experience and results of the partnership pilots will inform national roll-out and make a valuable contribution to Dublin city centre as a whole.

The Government, and the Department of Justice in particular, are prioritising continued momentum in the vital work to make our communities safer. Budget 2022 provided significant additional funding to deliver a host of initiatives under the youth justice strategy, and the community safety innovation fund, announced recently by the Minister, will also support community-based initiatives to enhance public safety.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Is there a copy of the Minister of State’s response?

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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It should be on the way. I apologise that it is not available now.

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response and welcome that extra resources have been allocated to An Garda Síochána. However, the issue is the deployment of those resources because, unfortunately, it does not appear that we are seeing a greater number of gardaí on the streets in the inner city. That is the solution to this. How many gardaí are doing roads policing at night time as opposed to patrolling the inner city? Obviously, we need roads policing but we primarily need more gardaí patrolling the inner city.

I have recently seen a solution to this. For the past number of months, the people of Creighton Street and City Quay in my constituency have been subjected to unprovoked violence by rival gangs of youths on the pedestrian bridge over the River Liffey. They were exposed to this level of violence throughout the day. The local committee met with the Garda and there has now been a very positive response from the Garda in Pearse Street by allocating more resources there. Therefore, more resources on the ground can solve this problem or certainly curtail it. I ask the Minister of State to bring that message back to the Minister for Justice.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Likewise, I acknowledge the increase in Garda numbers, but what people want to see, which is the age-old challenge, is gardaí on the streets. Be it the area covered by Tallaght Garda station, the area that is in need of a Garda station in Citywest, or Rathfarnham Garda station, which covers Firhouse, Ballycullen, Knocklyon, Rathfarnham and Churchtown, the public never see a garda on the beat anymore. It instills a huge amount of confidence when they do. As a result, we have seen an increase, especially in recent times, in assaults as well as significant antisocial behaviour and criminal damage in our parks, for example, in Rathfarnham Castle Park, where there was an incident over a weekend ago, and in Sean Walsh Park, where there was criminal damage caused over the weekend with fires started and assaults carried out. Parks should be safe spaces for people.

I ask the Minister of State to bring this message back to the Minister and the Garda Commissioner. We need more gardaí on the beat and in the stations in Tallaght and Rathfarnham. People in those areas need to see a visible Garda presence which would demonstrate the fact the Government has committed additional resources to these stations. I work closely, through our policing committee in the constituency, with Chief Superintendent Duff and Superintendent Lackey. These are top-class police officers. In terms of surveillance of antisocial behaviour on the Luas red line, the gardaí do incredible work, but Tallaght Garda station, which is the mother-ship Garda station of my constituency, simply does not have the kind of numbers and resources it needs given the population it serves, which is the size of a city. That needs to be addressed seriously by the Minister and the Commissioner.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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The Deputy gained additional time from a malfunctioning clock.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputies again for raising this matter in the House this morning. I will take their messages back in terms of visibility, resourcing and gardaí on the beat. The Minister is determined to continue to drive the implementation of the range of community safety policy actions to combat criminal activity and antisocial behaviour. We are very conscious of the effect these behaviours can have on the quality of life for local communities and those visiting in the community. Incidents of assault or intimidation are completely unacceptable, and fear should never become normalised in our society.

As the Deputies will be aware, the budget provided by the Government to the Garda Commissioner continues to increase to unprecedented levels, with an allocation in excess of €2 billion for 2022, including funding for the recruitment of up to 800 additional Garda trainees and up to 400 Garda staff. This significant investment demonstrates the Government's commitment to increasing the Garda workforce to enable the organisation to keep our communities safe. Many of the Garda members to be recruited will be drawn from the Garda recruitment competition that closed in recent weeks, and I very much welcome the fact that more than 10,000 people applied to join An Garda Síochána in this competition.

Record budget funding is underpinned by the ongoing roll-out of the new Garda operating model to support the redeployment of gardaí from non-core duties to front-line policing throughout the country. The new model will see larger divisions with more resources, increased Garda visibility in communities, a wider range of locally delivered policing services, and a strong focus on community policing.