Dublin business leaders have called on the Government to do more on addressing social issues behind street crime in the city.
Senior gardaí are to meet Dublin business owners and Dublin City Council over fears about street violence in the capital, following the latest attack in the city centre in which a man was stabbed several times on Grafton Street on Sunday morning.
The victim was taken by ambulance to hospital for treatment while a suspect was arrested by gardaí from Pearse Street station.
The incident follows an attack on US tourist Stephen Termini on Talbot Street last month that left him seriously injured in hospital.
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Richard Guiney, chief executive of Dublin Town has said that there were clearly issues about how social difficulties in Dublin were addressed.
“There are clearly issues in terms of how we deal with our social difficulties and vulnerable people. I think that can be done an awful lot better. I think we can respect the dignity of people in receipt of services a lot better than we do,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
Mr Guiney said that while he would like to see more gardaí on the street, gardaí had acted quickly with swift arrests following the incident
Footfall in the city centre was now up to 90 per cent of pre pandemic levels, he said, but there had also been a significant increase in shoplifting, with more reports of increased levels of aggression amongst shoplifters, assaults on staff. But this was not just happening in Dublin, it was also happening in the UK and North America.
Mr Guiney said having greater Garda visibility would instill a degree of confidence in the public, but there remained social difficulties, post-pandemic behaviour issues. “I do think that things like the local community safety partnership and the Better City For All will actually work with all of the agencies to come up with the right response.”
On the same programme, Fianna Fáil’s justice spokesman TD Jim O’Callaghan said parts of Dublin are unsafe at certain times during the day and night.
“I think that’s a problem and that’s an issue that we have to address. Secondly, there are other parts of Dublin where if you walk around, you can see open criminal activity, whether it’s open drug dealing on the quays or sometimes violent interactions between people who are involved in drug-dealing,” the Dublin Bay South TD said.
“So we need to describe the problem and define it before we start trying to find solutions for it. We’re always going to have criminal acts in a big city. We’re never going to eliminate them completely. But one thing that is noticeable about Dublin in comparison to other European cities is you don’t see the same level of visibility of policing in Dublin as you see in other international cities.
Mr O’Callaghan called for the current recruitment rules for the Garda to change to allow more people join the force. He went on to defend Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, saying the issue should not become a political football.
Changing the Minister for Justice would not have an impact on this issue which was complex because of the high levels of drug addiction in Dublin, Mr O’Callaghan noted. Policy changes were needed such as changing recruitment methods for the gardaí and using the Garda Reserve more, he added.