A north Dublin playground destroyed by arson at the weekend may not reopen before Christmas, Dublin City Council’s management has said.
Gardaí and firefighters attended the playground at Oscar Traynor Park in Coolock on Sunday night. The surface of the facility was badly scorched and requires replacement, while a slide was damaged beyond repair.
Local councillors on Monday called for a “zero tolerance” approach following a spate of attacks on children’s play facilities in the city in recent months.
Council manager for the area, Bruce Phillips, said the playground would have to remain closed until a new surface could be installed. However, the slide may not be replaced for another “four to six months” he said.
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“This is the second or third time this [playground] has been burnt, but it’s a lot worse this time,” he said. “Hopefully we may get the playground opened before Christmas,” but he said “that will depend on how bad it is”.
While the council would do its best to restore access to the space, “it can take months, four to six months, for this type of equipment to be ordered” he said. “If they do it to another piece, that piece of equipment will take another four to six months ... Our hope is someone doesn’t go burning another piece.”
There have been several arson attacks on playgrounds and other council provided facilities in the city in recent months.
Last month, newly installed toilets in St Anne’s Park in Raheny, north Dublin were destroyed by fire and a playground in the north inner city was damaged in an arson attack over the Halloween weekend. The previous month there were arson attacks at playgrounds in Ringsend and Lucan.
Green Party councillor Donna Cooney said the costs of the attacks were now probably running into millions of euro. “We need to think about what is happening and why this has become a trend.”
Independent councillor John Lyons suggested dashcam or doorbell camera footage could be used to identify the culprits and that a “restorative justice” process could be employed. “There needs to be some kind of consequence,” he said. “It’s so reckless, so mindless from where I’m sitting.”
Those perpetrating the crime had “no fear of consequences” Sinn Féin’s Mícheál Mac Donncha said. “In the age in which we are living you have to ask is this being done for an online thrill and [to encourage] copycat attacks?”
Fianna Fáil councillor Daryl Barron said a “zero tolerance” policy was required “when we are spending taxpayers money on facilities like this.”
On Tuesday, Cllr Barron called on the Garda to visit schools to warn young people against the “disgusting behaviour” of vandalising playgrounds.
Cllr Daryl Barron told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland that the vandalism of the playground in Coolock was “absolutely appalling” and was unfortunately part of a growing trend of such incidents, which were then used as “click bait” on social media.
The damage had been caused by “young delinquents, mindless thugs”, he said.
“This is not the first arson attack with fire damage in the north central area. And we’ve had the new toilets in St Anne’s that have been badly damaged. Hopefully we’re going to get these repaired in the coming weeks. They haven’t even opened yet and other playgrounds and other sports facilities have been targeted by young individuals and I would appeal to people locally to make appeals to An Garda Síochána in relation to these serious events.”
He said the cost to repair the damage to the playground in Coolock could be up to €100,000.
Dublin City Council was going to have to “seriously look” at how CCTV was used at such facilities to ensure that “pieces of public infrastructure and social infrastructure like this isn’t damaged”, Cllr Barron said.
