Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I, like others, are aware of calls being made arising from the terrible events in Dublin just over a week ago for prompt action to punish wrongdoers and deter further acts of violence and aggression. We were all horrified at the scenes that unfolded and are concerned to do all we can to prevent such scenes recurring.

However, we need to be careful not to rush to judgement or make assumptions about the backgrounds or circumstances of the people who were engaged in the violent activity. We know for example, and from newspaper reports, that many of the people charged in relation to these events did not come from the north inner city and in addition that many are in employment and not, as some seem to assume, in receipt of a welfare payment.

We also need to be mindful that in our democracy we operate the separation of powers whereby the application of sanctions for people engaged in criminal activity is a matter reserved for the Courts.

Indeed this is a principle that has been confirmed in a Supreme Court ruling in 2018 whereby the Court ruled that the State may not operate a social welfare disqualification regime that applies only to convicted prisoners as it would constitute an additional punishment not imposed by a court dealing with an offender.

Ultimately, if we are to prevent a reoccurrence of the scenes we all witnessed we need to identify and address root causes.

In the meantime our immediate response to dealing with the people engaged in the violence in Dublin must, under the separation of powers, be through the criminal justice system. We need to rely on our Garda Síochána with the DPP to identify and prosecute offenders and on our judiciary to apply appropriate sanctions.

I can confirm that where a court applies a sanction of imprisonment to a person of working age (18 - 66) and where that person is in receipt of a welfare payment then their payment is ceased.