Frank Feighan (Fine Gael)

I also condemn the thugs who brought shame on our capital city and the flag. People state that the troublemakers brought shame on themselves but these people have no shame and do not care whether they bring shame on themselves. Unfortunately, the thuggish elements in our society had a platform from which to attack democracy. We must ensure that these people will not get the same platform on 17 March 2006.

I am very concerned that there will be a repeat of last Saturday's trouble. These people will be fuelled by drink and perhaps to a lesser extent, by drugs. What provisions have been put in place by the Minister to ensure there will be no further outbreak of trouble on St. Patrick's Day in our capital or some of the major towns around the country? I am worried that copycat violence may occur and that these thugs and neo-nationalist criminals will simply look for any excuse to cause trouble. I hope gardaí will receive the proper resources with which to deal with the threat of such trouble. The Minister will receive the complete support of everyone in this House to ensure this year's St. Patrick's Day is incident-free. I am worried about a possible outbreak of copycat violence so soon after this unfortunate incident. I stand firmly behind the Garda and everyone who monitored last Saturday's march.

We must ask ourselves questions because we can learn from this incident. We should possibly ask ourselves questions about co-ordination among those policing the march and the intelligence available to them. Perhaps gardaí should examine their own conduct. Is it possible to police a march with inadequate intelligence? We must do more to infiltrate these groups of vicious thugs and ensure there is no repeat of the trouble caused by them.