Laois Sinn Fein TD insists 'hapless' Justice Minister must go

Laois Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley insisted the ‘hapless’ Justice Minister should go and said a statement on policing by Fine Gael TD Charlie Flanagan ‘rings hollow’.     

Dep Stanley was responding to a statement issued by Dep Flanagan at the weekend in response to Sinn Fein’s decision to table a motion of no confidence in the Minister of Justice.   

The motion followed rioting and looting witnessed in Dublin on Thursday,  November 23. 

“Rather than work with Government and other authorities to ensure Dublin and all other areas are safe and equipped with high visibility policing, they want to ‘take out’ the Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris,” Dep Flanagan said. 

“Rather than work with all and provide unity following the violent events of November 23rd, Sinn Féin want to tear down the institutions that people are looking for leadership from.

“But this has always been Sinn Féin’s default position. Attack the State and attempt to tear it down.

“Sinn Féin and Mary Lou McDonald won’t succeed. Fine Gael want to build stronger, safer communities across the country,” Deputy Flanagan stated at the weekend.

Dep Stanley said he had read the statement which was issued by Dep Flanagan, who is a former Minister for Justice. 

“This rings hollow coming from somebody who is a member of Laois Joint Policing Committee and who has, and people can check the attendance record of that, will see that the two Sinn Fein representatives have almost a 100% attendance over the last three and a half years. Deputy Flanagan, as  I recall it, has only attended one meeting in three and a half years of the Joint Policing Committee,” said Dep Stanley.  

“Sinn Fein believes in engagement with the community, engagement with Gardai. Using those opportunities to try and ensure that the streets are safer and that we have a well resourced and effective policing service. 

Fine Gael in this case in relation to the Dublin situation. It is an act of deflection. Deflecting attention away from the fact that there are 500 less Gardai in Dublin city then there was when this government came to power. They have had the justice portfolio for 13 years and they failed to put extra Gardai on the streets despite an increase in population,” said Dep Stanley.    

“It is clear that the Gardai had a lack of equipment. It is clear that the government have failed to bring forward legislation and get body cameras in place in a timely manner. Gardai are not sure of their powers. You have a ridiculous situation where the hapless Minister for Justice is writing to the Policing Authority to find out off the Policing Authority when the Guards can use powers to protect themselves. She showed no political leadership whatsoever,” he continued.  

“It is only now after the catastrophe in Dublin, the Dublin riots, which the response to was very poor, not the individual Gardai’s fault, but a clear lack of leadership on top. They are only now putting a public order unit in place. That public order unit, according to the figures released by government last week, will only consist of 42 frontline Garda. Around the clock 24/7, if you take that, that would only mean eight to ten members on a shift at any given time,” said Dep Stanley. 

“I think the real failure here is that Fine Gael continue to deny, or even say that they weren’t aware, that the centre of Dublin city spun out of control unfortunately. Even Eamon Ryan, the leader of the Green Party, as I recall it he has actually admitted that he was aware that things had got out of control but Fine Gael either were unaware of it or failed to recognise that. They have also failed to put the Garda Reserve in place, so there is complete failure, you couldn’t have faith in this Minister.” 

“It is not just us that us saying it, communities are saying it to us,  people in business are saying it to us. In relation to his criticism of our party leader, these events actually happened in her constituency. She has been on the ground, not just in the last fortnight, but she has been on the ground talking to people and engaging with people and local Gardai over recent months and raising these concerns. Unfortunately the Minister for Justice wasn’t listening,” said Dep Stanley.  

“From Sinn Fein’s point of view we want to make community safety and public safety a priority. We are supporting getting more Gardai on the street, we provided for that in our budget. We want to make sure that we double the training allowance to get more Gardai training in Templemore. We want to make sure that the Gardai have the equipment but also that they know when they can use that and they are not left in a situation where they neither have the equipment nor proper guidance on what  force they can use to try and protect themselves and protect local communities,” he said.  

“Fine Gael have not put community services in place in a lot of these communities where there have been problems. They have cut back on diversionary programmes, on youth services and when you do that, it may not be the single cause of the issues that arose in Dublin but it certainly doesn’t help the situation,” said Dep Stanely.  

“It is clear that the government has not dealt with the problem but are actually refusing to recognise that this problem has been boiling under the surface for the last couple of years. 

In Laois Offaly, Deputy Stanley said “overall we have good service here” when asked about policing. 

“Gardai and everyone would like more resources but I have to say that our engagement here would be very good with the local gardai, the Joint Policing Committee, the new Chief Superintendent that is there, we get a very good response any time that we have to engage with the Gardai on any matters,” he said.

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He said Laois Offaly, and in particular Laois, had been fortunate in the numbers of recruits it has secured in recent years compared to other parts of the country.