Gangs of youths who believe they are "immune to apprehension" are "prowling Dublin city" at night looking for people to attack, Fianna Fáil TD Jim O'Callaghan has said.
Mr O’Callaghan said these gangs are “misognistic towards women, homophobic towards gay people” and in particular are seeking to target men in their late teens, 20s or 30s who are on their own or with just one other person.
Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday, the Dublin Bay South TD said there was a “dangerous level of unprovoked and gratuitous violence” being perpetrated against people who are socialising in Dublin at night.
Mr O’Callaghan pointed to the recent homophobic attack on a 23-year-old man on Dame Street in which his eye socket was fractured, an attack on an Italian man in the same vicinity of the city and the assault on a 24-year-old Englishman on D’Olier Street.
“We need to understand that part of the solution is that Dublin needs to become more like other European cities,” he said.
“If you go to other European cities you see a good number of policemen patrolling those inner cities at nighttime. We don’t have enough gardaí on the streets at night time.”
Mr O’Callaghan said he didn’t want to see gardaí at meetings at nighttime or “stuck in garda stations”.
“I want to see them out patrolling the inner city,” he added. “My fear is that we’re not going to get a strong enough response until regrettably a tourist is killed in this city.
“If it isn’t checked or challenged, Dublin is going to get a terrible name as a place of violence, it will damage our tourism industry and it will also damage us as a place for foreign direct investment.”
Fianna Fáil TD John Lahart said the problem wasn't just in the city but in the suburbs also. The Dublin South-West TD said Tallaght Garda station, built in the 1980s, was "completely outdated now" and that gardaí had taken two floors of the nearby Plaza Hotel "in order to be able to fulfill the functions they have to fulfill".
Mr Lahart said up to 10 gardaí per week were now committed to "surveillance and coverage" of the Russian embassy on Orwell Road due to the war in Ukraine and that Rathfarnam garda station had not been compensated with extra resources.
Minister of State Joe O’Brien said he and the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee utterly condemned the “deplorable violent acts” that had taken place over recent weeks and that people should be able to feel safe whether they live or work in Dublin or were visiting the capital city.
“Gardaí continue to implement high-visibility policing plans to address public disorder related issues and anti-social behaviour in Dublin city centre, with particular overt and targeted policing of public places at times when public order incidents and antisocial behaviour typically increase, such as bank holiday weekends,” he said.
“The allocation of Garda resources is a matter for the Garda Commissioner. However, Garda members and Garda staff in DMR (Dublin Metropolitan Region) north central and DMR south central have both seen an increase in resources since 2012.”
