Sinn Féin maintain pressure on McEntee, but Labour say it isn't time for political point scoring

Fine Gael Minister for Justice Helen McEntee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris

PRESSURE REMAINS HIGH on both the Justice Minister and Garda Commissioner following the events of last Thursday, with Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald saying the “days of excuses” are over.

McDonald said Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris need to be held to account over the violence and disruption in Dublin on 23 November.

“There is an absolute unified demand across the capital city that we are safe on our streets and in our communities,” McDonald said.

“The days of excuses or dodging the realities on the ground by the minister, by the Government or by the Garda Commissioner are over.

“People have been patient with them,” she added.

McDonald said resources, planning and leadership have been asked for “but those in charge have failed”.

“And now they have to be held to account and we move to resourcing the gardaí, resourcing our communities and ensuring that children can go to school safely and that people can go about their lives in the capital city without fear of the violence that we saw,” she said.

On Friday, the Sinn Féin leader said she has no confidence in the Minister for Justice or the Garda Commissioner following the riots in Dublin the night before.

In a statement released by McDonald she said she supported the gardaí but not the Minister or Garda Commissioner.

A similar expression of no confidence was also made by the Social Democrats.

Speaking to reporters today however, Labour TD Aodháin Ó Ríordáin said the Labour Party’s position is that rather than backing calls for resignations, the focus needs to be “on the far-right, actors who are causing this poison in our society”.

He said calls for resignations are “the immediate political response that people expect, I suppose when it comes to point scoring politically, but we care deeply about our city.”

“We care deeply about school communities who are traumatised. We care deeply about members of our own communities who are saying we don’t feel safe walking the streets of Dublin and if you turn this conversation into ‘this person needs to resign or the other person needs to resign’, well then we’re not talking about those issues property.”

He said the Government’s response so far is not what people need to hear and argued that instead people need to hear from the minister that she hears and understands the issues in the gardaí – including around resourcing, pay and conditions.

He added: “I mean, it is pretty obvious that even if Drew Harris did resign in the morning, you probably wouldn’t be able to get somebody to replace him.

“So this is how deep the issues within an Garda Síochána are. And for Government to come out and start talking about water cannons, dog units, horse units, and facial recognition technology – none of which are going to prevent, or would have prevented what happened on Thursday night”.

Ó Ríordáin also criticised members of the Oireachtas for fuelling and whipping up anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“They step into this vacuum because Government are not providing leadership in terms of the reality of immigration,” he said.

Labour Senator Rebecca Moynihan also criticised the Policing Authority in the aftermath of the events on 23 November and said it needs to examine the lack of intelligence leading up to the riot.

“The Policing Authority has a role in this and they need to come out now and they need to put their stamp on it and say they are having an investigation into the conduct of An Garda Síochána afterwards, but also the lead up to it and the intelligence. It’s a real failure of intelligence,” she said.

Moynihan said the idea that this took the gardaí and the Minister for Justice by surprise is “bananas”.

Moynihan said the minister “fundamentally does not understand policing in the city.

“We had those photo ops where we saw ministers walking around, but they do not understand what is happening in the city,” she said.

Meanwhile, Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan indicated she will not back the Justice Minister if there is a motion of no confidence.

Speaking on Today with Claire Byrne, Hourigan – who is currently outside the party whip – said “I don’t see how I can”.