Dáil debates
Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
Antisocial Behaviour
9:52 am
Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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On Monday afternoon, in broad daylight, there was another attack on Ballyfermot gardaí. This was the third such high-profile attack in the past few months. There have been others over the years. I wish the injured gardaí a speedy recovery. The attacks in no way represent the good people of Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard, who are as aghast as the rest of us over what occurred when a gang took over one of the busiest junctions in the area under the pretext of a funeral. Obviously, a family is grieving and obviously the friends of the deceased are hurting but that is no justification for the lawlessness captured on the footage, distributed on social media, of what happened in the vicinity of the church and schools locally. It is footage of criminal damage and the rallying of motorbikes in the flowerbeds of the roundabout. The galling attack on two gardaí who had gone to the aid of a woman who had been knocked over by one of the motorbikes was a big blow for us. It beggars belief; something has gone wrong.
The need for more gardaí and action against the lawlessness are obvious, but there is also a need for additional services and to address the underlying problems and issues that cause lawlessness of this scale in a community in a big city.
The problem is that there have been many promises, so communities feel let down. Only before Christmas, there was to be an implementation body to deliver change. What is the position on that? Where are the resources and the additional gardaí to ensure this activity does not happen again in an area that is already suffering from a lack of services and everything else? The area should not have to suffer from a lack of gardaí and no response to lawlessness.
Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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Yes, there has been yet another attack on gardaí doing what they could to protect the good people of Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard. There is disgust and revulsion in the community because of the attack. The words of the Garda Representative Association come to mind. It has stated gardaí feel vulnerable on the streets. We have seen a 25% decline in the number of gardaí in the area in the past few years. If gardaí do not feel they have other gardaí standing beside them, they will feel vulnerable, which will affect the Government’s recruitment aims. We need to get recruitment going again so we can get more gardaí into the community in question.
A Cherry Orchard implementation board was promised. I submitted a parliamentary question last week to seek an update from the Minister on it. If we had had knowledge of the position on the plan and there had been progress, maybe we could have avoided these scenes yet again. These issues emerged owing to scramblers. While we have given the Garda more powers to confiscate scramblers, we need to ask whether we are doing enough to control them and whether we should be considering controls or limitations at the point of sale? Ultimately, while we have given the Garda more powers, those powers can be used only if there is a sufficient number of gardaí and if they feel sufficiently safe and able to use them. They will feel that way only if there are enough gardaí in Ballyfermot supporting each other and the community.
Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputies for raising this issue and for their ongoing engagement on it. Like everyone in this House, I am absolutely clear that the criminal events in Ballyfermot this week – that is what it they were – were completely unacceptable. I absolutely acknowledge that the activity was not in any way reflective of the good, decent people of Ballyfermot. I share their revulsion over what happened this week. People have rightly been appalled over the lack of respect for the community living in Ballyfermot and the gardaí working there to keep it safe. We will always support communities affected by such crime and antisocial behaviour, as we did recently with the establishment of the Cherry Orchard implementation board. A lack of respect for An Garda Síochána and the rules by which decent, law-abiding citizens live their lives will not stand. An Garda protects all of us, and gardaí put themselves at risk in keeping us safe.
Any misplaced belief that members of An Garda Síochána can be threatened, attacked or run out of the communities they proudly serve will be met with an extremely firm response. No person is beyond the reach of the law, and those showing contempt for An Garda Síochána will be fully investigated. I urge anyone with information to report it to An Garda Síochána.
My thoughts are with the garda attacked in the course of duty on Monday. As the investigation remains ongoing, I will not comment further on the specific case, but I want to wish the garda in question a full and speedy recovery. Front-line workers must be protected in carrying out their work, and the law reflects the importance of this. There is a range of robust legislative provisions available to the Garda authorities in circumstances where threats or assaults are made against front-line workers, and I have had discussions with the Garda Commissioner on how we can do more in this regard.
This Government is committed to increasing the maximum penalty available for the offence of assault causing harm from five years' imprisonment to ten years' imprisonment. This will provide the courts with a more appropriate range of sentences to take account of the nature and gravity of assaults that fall under this offence category. This change will be introduced by the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022, which is currently before the Houses.
The Deputies may also be aware that an assault on a member of An Garda Síochána, a prison officer, a member of the fire brigade, ambulance personnel or a member of the Defence Forces constitutes an offence under section 19 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994. A person convicted of such an offence on indictment would be liable to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years, or both.
I will be meeting Garda representative associations in the coming week. Starting today, I will be meeting chief superintendents and superintendents. I will be meeting representatives of the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors in the coming days and will discuss with them how I, as Minister for Justice, and the rest of the Government can support them and keep them safe. I rule nothing out in this regard. This includes the absolutely crucial provision of body-worn cameras. I intend to enact legislation to allow for body-worn cameras in the coming months to allow the Garda Commissioner to begin a pilot later this year.
I reassure the Ballyfermot community that a policing plan remains in place in the area to ensure the safety of local residents. This plan will continue to effectively address criminality and public order offending by focusing on prolific offenders through specific operations that result in preferring criminal charges. I have been informed by the Garda of a number of incidents involving dangerous driving and reckless endangerment on Monday. I understand two men were arrested regarding incidents of dangerous driving, two motorbikes were seized and files are being prepared for the DPP.
I am assured by the Garda authorities that an ongoing local policing presence under Operation Préachán remains in place in Ballyfermot. Operation Préachán was initiated in August last year to detect and prevent criminal activities in the area, with a focus on car-related crime, criminal damage, dangerous driving and public disorder.
In November last year, the Minister without Portfolio, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State responsible for law reform, Deputy James Browne, announced the establishment of a new group to implement and co-ordinate supports for the Cherry Orchard community. Mr. Brendan Foster, the current chair of the Cherry Orchard Development Group, is to head up the new Cherry Orchard implementation board, whose model will be similar to the Drogheda Implementation Board, whereby an independent chair is working with Departments and agencies to progress projects and initiatives to improve safety and well-being. I am informed that the chair, supported by Dublin City Council and my Department, has been consulting locally to identify members and supports needed for the implementation board.
Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I want to concentrate on the implementation group, the Cherry Orchard group that is to be headed by Mr. Brendan Foster. There is urgency. When the Minister without Portfolio, Deputy McEntee, announced the group in December, she understood the need for urgency to ensure the community would understand that action is being taken. While the current Minister said Operation Préachán is ongoing, the high-level public order unit disappeared as one cannot have public order policing as a norm. However, the number of gardaí has dropped and the overtime has dropped. In fact, Dublin City Council had to pay for bicycles for the gardaí. That is the state of it.
There is an urgency about this. We need to hear when this team is going to be up and running and when some of the actions already promised by Dublin City Council and Government are going to be delivered.
10:02 am
Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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I thank the Minister for his response. Several Ministers have come to Cherry Orchard to see for themselves what is going on. The Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Deputy James Browne, and the Minister without Portfolio, Deputy Helen McEntee, have done so. They announced the implementation board which the Minister mentioned in his response but very little has happened. While there may be stuff happening behind the scenes, it is certainly not impacting or filtering through and the community is not necessarily seeing the benefit of that. Part of that is about community confidence in the process and community confidence in the Garda. In the short term, we need to accelerate the work of the implementation board and accelerate the provision of resources available to the Garda. In the medium term, we need to think about the wider social supports while in the long term we need to think about the wider social inequality in Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard. We need to address all of those issues, but certainly in the short term, there is a need to accelerate the work of the Cherry Orchard implementation board and ensure it has the resources to do what it needs to do.
Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The criminal acts carried out in Ballyfermot the other day were the responsibility of the those who decided to carry out those criminal acts and attack members of An Garda Síochána and injure a serving member, to whom we all send our best wishes and wish a speedy recovery. I am very satisfied that the full rigours of the law will apply in that case. I have already outlined the active investigation that is under way, including people being arrested, bikes being seized and files being prepared for the DPP. That is the right and proper policing response to a situation which everybody has been repulsed by.
I hear very clearly what both Deputies said on the importance of momentum, if I may call it that, behind the Cherry Orchard board and the project announced last November. I want to assure them that Minister without Portfolio, Deputy McEntee, the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Deputy Browne, and I are all committed to this. I will meet with the chair shortly but I want to assure the Deputies that the action to recruit the members of the board and engaging locally is very much under way.
I want to reiterate the Drogheda model has worked really well. In my other role, as Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, I have seen how that has made real progress in Drogheda. This is the model we are trying to replicate here.
On the issue of Garda numbers, we want to recruit 1,000 new gardaí this year. That is our aim. It will see more gardaí in every community across the country. That is what we are trying to do here. While I accept the issue about garda numbers, specifically in Ballyfermot, the numbers for the division Ballyfermot is in have actually risen. How those resources are deployed is a matter for the local chief superintendent. I will feed back the concerns of the Deputies.
On the issue of overtime, which Deputy Ó Snodaigh raised, we have increased the overtime budget for An Garda Síochána by €5 million this year, which brings the total budget to more than €100 million. We will stand firmly with the community of Ballyfermot. We will support the gardaí in their work and ensure they have the resources. We will get more recruits in and that is an active priority for the Garda Commissioner and me. I take the point about the Cherry Orchard implementation board and I am happy to keep both Deputies up to date in the coming weeks.