The use of the Tricolour to suggest an area belongs to “indigenous Irish people” is “completely inappropriate” and is “not what the Irish flag was ever about”, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan has said.
However, Mr O’Callaghan was cautious regarding demands to take flags down, saying the issue has to be handled “sensitively”. He also questioned the implications of flying Palestinian flags.
It comes after it was reported in recent days that Dublin City Council was to meet gardaí in response to concerns raised about Tricolours being erected in some parts of the city by anti-immigration campaigners.
During an interview on RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne programme Mr O’Callaghan was asked if he had concerns about how the Irish flag was being used.
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The Minister said the flag was “a wonderful emblem of unity and reconciliation”. He added: “What I wouldn’t like to see happening in Ireland is what I sometimes see in the North when you go into a territory, an area, and you see Union Jacks or Ulster flags or other areas you see Tricolours, and I suppose the purpose of them there is they’re marking territory.”
He conceded that in “some places” this may be happening in the Republic but added: “I think we need to be sensitive about how we deal with it.”
Mr O’Callaghan said he would be concerned about demands that Tricolours be taken down in certain areas. He added: “The city council have a responsibility in respect of it. We need respect for the flag. We also need respect for our planning laws.”
The Minister said “you can’t just erect a flag on every lamp-post or pole”, adding: “I’m concerned about what is clearly lying beneath it, which is a desire to use the flag for completely inappropriate reasons, to suggest that this is exclusively an area that belongs to indigenous Irish people. That’s not what the Irish flag was ever about.”
When it was suggested to him that he was wary about people being instructed to remove flags, Mr O’Callaghan said “it really does need to be dealt with sensitively”.
He added: “There’s a lot of Palestinian flags around – are we going to say you have to take down Palestinian flags as well? So we need to be careful about how we deal with it.”
Mr O’Callaghan also spoke about recent attacks on members of the Indian community, describing the situation as “something that we can’t allow to go unchecked”.
He said some offences were “motivated by racism” but were also committed by juveniles seeking to steal scooters or bikes.
“I know the Indian community were extremely concerned about it, and I am and I won’t tolerate it,” he said.
The Government has committed to introducing a new transport security force; Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien is responsible for developing the plans.
Mr O’Callaghan said that while he did not want to “start jumping on to his [Mr O’Brien’s] territory”, his view was, that such a force “should be given powers of arrest”. He said that “unless they have some form of powers of arrest ... it won’t be a sufficiently effective force”.
Earlier this week it was reported that newly appointed Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly is examining proposals to arm more frontline gardaí with Taser stun guns in a bid to better tackle serious violent confrontations.
Asked about this, Mr O’Callaghan said he was concerned that approximately 150 gardaí had been assaulted on duty so far this year. He said the roll-out of body cameras will have “a very significant impact in terms of protecting gardaí because it’s changing people’s behaviour”.
On Tasers, he said: “Regrettably, it may be necessary to roll their use out on a wider basis, but that’s a discussion that we’ll have with the commissioner.”
