Sir, – At 4am on Monday (August 7th), I got the 41 bus from Abbey Street to Dublin Airport, having walked there from Nassau Street. Sitting upstairs, one individual on the bus was openly doing cocaine, harassing other bus users and screaming abusive language.
At 3am on Monday 14th, I got off the 41 bus and walked across the city centre from O’Connell Street to Nassau Street. I did not see a single garda during my entire walk across the city on either morning.
As a young person who has lived in Dublin for most of their life, and lived in the city centre the past year, the feeling of unease while walking around town has only worsened, especially since the pandemic. Serious questions need to be asked of the Government, and in particular Fine Gael, which has held the justice portfolio since 2011, about the dire state of policing in Dublin.
It is not good enough for either residents or tourists to have no police presence. – Yours, etc,
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MICHAEL RYAN,
Dublin 2.
Sir, – In the midst of all the hand-wringing on the rising level of assaults by teenagers in Dublin and the lack of gardaí on the ground to react to them, there has been very little focus on the workings of the criminal justice system where under-18s are involved.
At present, prison is a last resort even when serious criminal convictions are incurred, with the result that Oberstown is catering for a wide range of referrals from the courts, ranging from out of control repeat offenders to convicted murderers.
The closing of Saint Patrick’s some years ago on the grounds that young criminals were being trained there by older ones now looks like a major mistake given that repeated serious criminality has very little consequences until the perpetrator is 18 and faces adult prison.
Removing the ringleaders of gangs off the streets is key to sending a message that actions have consequences to their impressionable followers.
Perhaps Minister for Justice Helen McEntee can focus less on hypothetical hate and more on a worsening youth crime situation that is breeding the adult criminals of tomorrow while the State does very little to nip the problem in the bud. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL FLYNN,
Bayside,
Dublin 13.