The Garda are investigating an incident where the tyres on a number of SUVs were deflated overnight on a street in Churchtown, in south Dublin, by people who left leaflets saying they were taking action because of the “climate emergency”, according Minister of State Neale Richmond.
In a posting on his Twitter account on Wednesday, Mr Richmond said he had calls from constituents who last night had their vehicles targeted in Churchtown by a “supposed climate action group.
“It’s now with the local Gardaí. This thuggery is unacceptable, I’m hopeful the investigation can put a stop to this carry on, but be vigilant.”
The politician told The Irish Times that as far as he was aware sixteen SUV-type vehicles had been targeted along Braemor Road and that all had been parked in their owner’s driveways at the time, in some instances behind closed gates.
The cars targeted were SUVs, including electric and hybrid vehicles. “It is very disturbing for the people concerned,” he said. “Stunts like this don’t help any cause. It doesn’t help fight the climate emergency, it just annoys people.”
He said that as far as he was aware the same group had targeted cars in Ranelagh on Saturday, and in Rathgar before Christmas. Similar targeting of SUVs has happened in San Francisco, Amsterdam, Brussels and London.
Leaflets left on the cars in Churchtown said “your gas guzzler kills” and “we did this because driving around urban areas in your massive vehicle has huge consequences for others”.
While the leaflets referred to the carbon production of SUVs, they also said that electric and hybrid versions were “still polluting, dangerous, and cause congestion”.
Mr Richmond said the gardai in Dundrum were investigating the matter and he believed the people who did it should be charged.
The chief executive of Friends of the Earth Ireland, Oisin Coghlan, in a posting on Twitter, responded to Mr Richmond’s tweet, saying having the tyres “of your polluting juggernaut” deflated is “so disruptive, unlike, you know, climate breakdown and mass extinction, that’s just an acceptable externality. Not any more. It’s no longer external. And it was never acceptable.”
An attempt to contact Mr Coghlan was not successful. The Garda Press Office said it would make enquiries and comment then.
