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JUSTICE MINISTER HELEN McEntee has said that a special taskforce being set up to deal with street crime in Dublin is the gardaí ensuring their response is “adequate” and “appropriate” to concerns raised about Dublin city centre.
Focus on Dublin’s O’Connell street came in for sharp focus in recent weeks after RTÉ’s ‘Prime Time’ programme highlighted crime and anti-social behaviour taking place on the street.
It is understood the task force could include operations to target low and mid-level drug dealing and will operate across the entire six divisions in the Garda Dublin Metropolitan Region and not just the city centre.
Speaking to reporters in Kells, County Meath this morning, the minister said a number of different operations by the gardaí have “worked extremely well across the city in recent years”, citing Operation Spire and Operation Citizen in particular.
Anti-social behaviour
Two operations, Operation Citizen and Operation Spire, specifically target anti-social behaviour and drug dealing will be run from the new premises, alongside potential victim support.
Operation Spire, a plainclothes Garda operation run out of Store Street Garda station is aimed at tackling anti-social behaviour and knife crime.
Operation Citizen also tackles anti-social behaviour and other crimes within Dublin city centre, with 100 Gardaí patrolling areas around the quays and Liffey boardwalk.
The minister said Operation Citizen has been “relaunched”, with gardaí working with local businesses to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Speaking about the new task force, McEntee said “what the gardaí are looking to do is to enhance those operations but also see what more we can do”.
She said Assistant Commissioner for Dublin Angela Willis, who is believed to have suggested the new taskforce, has been been doing excellent work leading on the response in the Dublin City Centre area.
“We know that there are concerns in particular about our city centre, but this is the gardaí making sure that their response is adequate, that it’s appropriate. We will have more details of that when it’s finalised,” said McEntee
Additional Garda presence on the city centre street was recently announced by the minister, with a new Garda premises on O’Connell Street forming a part of an effort to increase police presence within the city centre.
Cautions by gardaí
Minister of State with responsibility for Ireland’s drugs strategy, Frank Feighan has said gardaí should be able to caution rather than charge those with drug addictions who have been caught with drugs such as cocaine.
Responding, McEntee said this is a key recommendation from the taskforce on mental health that she established alongside Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
The taskforce reviewed why there are so many in Ireland’s criminal justice system who have addiction and mental health problems and how the State could “provide a more holistic and a more appropriate response”, she said.
“This is one of the recommendations that has to be worked through. We published the report only in the last few weeks and we’ve set out clearly timelines as to how we can engage with and work across the different agencies,” she said.
“So there’s still work to do,” she said, stating that this government and previous governments have agreed to look at this from a public health perspective in trying to work with and support people who have addiction problems.
“And really, this is just another iteration of that,” said McEntee, while acknowledging that “it’s not straightforward” in terms of how you differentiate between those that have addiction problems, and then other issues as well”.
“It’s something that we would work through as part of the recommendations,” said the minister.
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A few lads like Lugs Brannigan to dish out a few slaps to the teenagers terrorising parts of the city centre would be most welcome. Don’t even try to go all Helen Lovejoy on me about corporal punishment – the rest of us all know that these gurriers don’t understand anything else.
@OnlyHereForTheComments: The Public don’t want the old style of policing. It’s all about the scrotes rights these days. No Guard will rise a hand anymore because they will face the sack
@OnlyHereForTheComments: Do you honestly think any member of the gardai will consider ” a few slaps”, that day is done as there is more oversight of gardai than any purposeful attempt to deal with lawlessness and thugs brought before the courts. What I wonder is where are all these gardai to come from to cope with the new taskforce as there are only the same members available as before and if they were unable to target the antisocial behaviour before , then how will this happen now? . We are only 40 years waiting for policing of the city centre to happen and now we are being told that the gardai will consider if their response is ‘adequate’ and ‘appropriate’ .Nothing will change or at least nothing permanent.
@OnlyHereForTheComments: interesting attitude where a few slaps would solve the criminal element in these areas. It jyst a throw away conversation with no real thinking put into it. I suggest you read or listen to the podcast of The Witness. In his own words. It truly changed my view of the issues in these areas. No policing no positive engagement with the Gardaí and most of all those living the lives you described are second if not third class citizens in this country. Abandoned by the establishment and the Gardaí in particular and left to fend for themselves. Very similar to Northern Ireland and yet we have a different attitude to civil unrest up there to inner city Dublin. The gangs are running these cities. If you are serious about this its the minister for finance you need.
@Honeybee: Good points, plus we also had a number of Garda Stations shut down a few years ago to save a relatively small amount of exchequer money. One of those stations was only a few hundred yards from the Regency Hotel and could have been on the scene a lot quicker.
@Allora: A bit of parenting would be ideal, but in the absence of that, a few slaps would be grand, thank you. I’m not referring to gangland activities, I’m referring to lawless teenage scrotes running amok with no regard for anyone. Or, we could just provide them with another set of 5 a side pitches, since that seems to be working well.
Just stop all the talk and buzz words – put the Garda back on the street where they are needed – the city centre would be a start.
We pay our taxes – why has this service been removed?
@Peter McGlynn: there used to be a Crime Task Force (CTF) in each of the 6 Dublin Garda Divisions (north, north central, south, south central, east and west ) but they were disbanded due to lack of Garda personnel… each had 20-30 Gardai… so 150 approx for whole city … the ‘new’ task force will have 50 for the entire city … relaunching old initiatives with less numbers is PR spin horsesh ite.
@Bri Lyons: the problem started 10-12 years ago when some rocket scientist in Government decided “Hey we won’t recruit any new Gardaí for a few years. It’ll save a few Euro, we won’t worry about the Gardaí in situee nor will we worry about the Gardaí retiring. The lads will be grand” Now here we are not in a position to back fill these retirements and now have resignations every other day. Resources are now stretched resulting in a reactive police service as opposed to a proactive policing model.
@Ian Breathnach: with a ff or fg government back then …….not much has changed really has it :(
Give them cattle prods.
@l: that’d be awesome
Oh man she is the gift that keeps on giving….the minister honestly thinks that every station has grown in the bag garda …rip open the pack add water and a garda appears….100 garda patroling the board walk…how about the reality of actually 4 on a daily basis….not 100 members available in the DMR on any given day ….if you balance out retirements with recruitment 20 garda is all that came out of the collage….the hole story is another pr stunt by the worst justice minister and worst Garda commissioner the state has ever had ….full front on lying to the public
@Dave Ryan: She’s too soft personality wise, how she was given the Justice Minister portfolio I’ll never know.
@Frank Cauldhame: buddies with top man leo shur, how did Simon Harris get the health ministry and he didn’t finish his arts degree?
@Frank Cauldhame: yep way to young for the portfolio
@James Reardon: a degree doesn’t necessarily confer special powers on any individual. I’d much prefer to see a high degree and common sense in anyone trying to run anything, including a country!
@Siobhan O’Sullivan Morrin: edit – ‘a high degree OF common sense … … ‘
Every second day we all see the WhatsApp videos of the fights on the capitals streets. Time to act now.
Look what the cops do to people who are unruly in places like Budapest… baton over the head.
20 + years too late. We have effectively lost the city to a sub culture of socially belligerent sc um. Investment in proper city centric policing and a complete reform of the judicial system is required. These muppets are destroying the simple pleasures in life we used to take for granted.
What’s the point without a judicial back up?? If I was a garda I’d lose heart.
The judges don’t care.
@Dearbhla O Reilly: very true. No actual space in prisons, or indeed in any centres to rehabilitate these scr0tes. Thousands of fellas with 50+ priors and they’ll never get rehabilitated and helped, or indeed see inside a cell.
We need a elite unit that has a free reign to take in and “question” the suspects for 48 hours in conditions similar to an Irish rangers unit “sleep deprivation and other close to inhumane tactics”. These low level criminals need a deterrent which is severely lacking in current Gardai procedures. The slap on the wrist and court sentencing is a pathetic joke.
A task force is not what’s needed. This is more PR BS from a minister totally out of her depth. Nor has it anything to do with putting more gardai on the street, albeit it a welcome move. The solution is to put offending and especially re-offending criminals behind bars and keeping them there.
Every town in the country needs a task force such as this…. why only Dublin getting police protection????
We all pay the same taxes so should get the same services. You’d swear antisocial behaviour only happens in Dublin
@Siobhán Mg: your right. All places in Ireland should get bang for their buck and be adequately protected. However you conveniently left out or are unaware of crime rates county to county.
@Siobhán Mg: So what is a good plan albeit a small roll out is attacked as it is in Dublin.
Did you know a lot of new plans are tried in Dublin first to see it they will work and then are rolled out across the country.
Wow there’s a shocker for you.
#OperationEnable being a perfect example, tested in Dublin , checked to see if it worked and or needed adapting. It did not then rolled out across the country.
Your are not been forgotten, Dubliners once again are the Guinea Pigs for the rest of the country.
Garda premises on O’Connell street, very careful not to say station.
Horse already Bolted and all that
A pretty pointless exercise when the police have to deal with the likes of judge NO… in Dublin and, in Limerick, judge O’Dd (aka “the hanging judge” – everything suspended). What would any of us do if our workplace efforts were thwarted by wigs who are removed from the reality of most people’s lives.
The Gardaí make all these announcements but you never seem to see much evidence of it.
I’d love to know what garda officer thinks it’s a deterrent or a good idea to park a clapped out old garda van on the centre pavement in O Connell Street, and thinks its gonna do something…. Literally the dogs on the street know its empty… What a shambles just like the “new” task force plan we’ve heard a million times…
New special task force understaffed and underfunded and it has not even been established yet
If the Gardai are as ineffective as the some scribes on here seem to believe then how did those 4000 prisoners now doing time find their way into our burgeoning prison system …. like did they all just turn up voluntarily with a change of shirt and a pair of spare socks ?
O.K…. double the prison population if you want but that couldn’t be done without all the prolonged political wrangling it would entail and anyway how would the public react to the news that their taxes must take another to provide for such expansion. Should I mention Thornton Hall ? …. maybe best not to.
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