Policing surge to combat Dublin city-centre violence is halted

A Government plan to surge policing in Dublin and shore up perceptions of public safety, following street violence last year, has quietly ended after the €10 million budget for the operation was spent and not renewed.

Funding for the policing surge was unveiled by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee last year after she came under extreme pressure following a series of violent attacks in central Dublin during summer, including on Talbot Street and in Temple Bar where tourists were violently targeted.

Stephen Termini (57), from Buffalo, New York, suffered serious injuries after an assault on Talbot Street in July. Just weeks earlier, Ukrainian actor Oleksandr Hrekov (23), a cast member of the Abbey Theatre’s Translations, was slashed across the face on Eden Quay.

There was also a series of other violent incidents, including serious beatings and stabbings which put Ms McEntee under pressure, resulting in her making available €10 million to help the Garda make the streets feel safer though a high-visibility operation.

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That policing surge, launched in late August, involved increased deployment of the public-order unit in the city centre as well as 48,500 extra Garda overtime hours per month across all Garda divisions. The budget also funded so-called ‘days of action’, with teams of gardaí assembled to carry out searches against known criminals in target areas.

Some of the funding enabled Dublin-based gardaí to be used for the additional operations and some of their colleagues based in the regions were also drafted into Dublin to boost Garda numbers generally, especially in the city centre.

However, while gardaí had been coming from counties Mayo, Cavan, Monaghan, Louth, Meath and Sligo to bolster frontline policing in the city centre, that process has now ended. The Irish Times understands the use of those regional-based gardaí ended 10 days ago.

The funds for the other aspects of the operation have also been exhausted. These included enhancing Operation Citizen, which targets street dealing and antisocial behaviour in central Dublin, and the additional patrols on the public transport network.

The loss of the gardaí based in the regions comes at a time when Garda numbers remain low, even though recruitment has recommenced, and as other personnel streams for Dublin policing have dried up for now.

Probationer gardaí taken out of the Garda College, Templemore, Co Tipperary, to add to the policing surge have now returned to the college for the next phase of their training. Furthermore, an arrangement involving Garda units across Dublin providing additional personnel for city-centre policing ended last weekend.

Garda sources said it was frustrating the additional resources were no longer available as they had helped increase Garda visibility and perceptions of public safety in the city centre in the run-up to Christmas.

[ Dublin city centre street closed down due to drugs and crime ]

[ Garda orders 20,000 units of double-strength pepper spray for frontline officers after Dublin riots ]

Some of the same sources said the riots of November 23rd were a major blow for the city and while the streets quickly returned to normal, they believed an additional budget may have been allocated to continue the policing surge into the first months of this year.

They pointed out Garda numbers remained below 14,000 – some 750 down on 2020 – at a time when the Garda was now under significant pressure with labour-intensive policing operations around anti-immigrant events.

In reply to queries about the policing surge in Dublin ending, the Department of Justice said a very significant budget had been allocated to the Garda for this year.

“The budget allocation ... provides funding of €2.35 billion, which includes a €28 million increase in the overtime budget to over €130 million which will allow for continued high visibility policing to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour in Dublin and across the country,” it said.

The reply added the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and other figures in Garda management were “responsible for the distribution and allocation of resources within An Garda Síochána”. A response to queries was awaited from Garda Headquarters.

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