Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to bring to the attention of the Leader an issue that is the direct opposite, although not intentionally, of what Senator Ruane has been saying. I have been speaking with the chair of the Licensed Vintners Association and I have been in contact with the chief executive of the Restaurant's Association of Ireland. Along with many other people who operate businesses in Dublin city, they are very concerned that certain parts of Dublin city are getting out of control at particular times of the day and on certain days of the week. They are very concerned about the lack of resources and gardaí available to deal with organised groups who come into town to cause trouble and to annoy people who are dining, shopping or drinking outdoors. People are just getting back to enjoying their city after so many months of 5 km and 2 km restrictions.

People who work in the sector Dublin do not want to say that it is a bad situation, but they must. They want people to come into the city, but it has reached the stage where they are really crying out for extra resources. Maybe a short, sharp intervention is needed to tackle this matter, but definitely it would seem to be very organised groups doing this. They may not be large in number but the impact of their behaviour is felt large in certain parts of the city, especially in Temple Bar, O'Connell Street, and South William Street, areas in which much of this activity appears to be concentrated. It is spreading out, however. Hopefully, the more that businesses reopen, the more people will come back into town and the more diluted this activity will become.

Anyone who looks at Twitter will see videos of the type of activity to which I refer. It s not just happening by accident because somebody has had too much to drink: this is organised and it is dangerous. While we may not need a debate on the activity in question, I call on the Leader to arrange a call to the Garda. Whatever about the regulations relating to drinking, and we all understand that the Garda Síochána is only acknowledging the laws and rules that are there, this issue must be tackled for the future of Dublin, as a city. We need our tourists back and we need our people to be safe on our streets and in our towns. This matter needs to be dealt with swiftly.