Since 2015, when the first garda graduated after the college had been closed due to the economic crash, the number of gardaí in the Dublin metropolitan region has increased from 3,491 to 3,742, said McEntee.

“Through successful Garda operations to tackle organised crime, the number of murders carried out by
organised crime groups has fallen substantially.”

McEntee said “extremists” had hijacked the horrific stabbing of three children and their carer last week in Dublin to start riots. She said gardaí would be further resourced and given more clarity on what kind of force they can use in such situations.

The Garda budget, at €2.3bn, is the largest it’s ever been, she said, training her focus on the social media platforms where the protests were co-ordinated.

We cannot cede to the manipulative thugs who wreaked havoc last week. Social media companies need to do more. They need to be more proactive and socially responsible. It is not good enough for social media platforms to fail to tackle hateful content.

McDonald, however, was unimpressed with the list of accomplishments.

She openly laughed at the idea that the Government opened Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station, saying it was merely reopened, having been shuttered by the Fine Gael administration a decade ago, and that 130 Garda stations have closed around the country since 2009, with 450 fewer gardaí in Dublin.

“Despite all your promises about law and order, we now have fewer gardaí on the beat than we had in 2009,” said McDonald. “This is despite an explosion in our population. How is that for a review, ladies and gentle-men? Do not look wide-eyed in wonder at why people feel unsafe. That is why people are unsafe.

“The Garda station on O’Connell St is desperate... You could literally be about to breathe your last breath out on the street and that unfortunate [garda] cannot leave the desk. Do not come in here and play a game of make-believe. All I have heard from you is fig-leaf and an exercise of the most brazen arse-covering that I have ever heard in this chamber.”

McDonald said it was time for McEntee to resign, that Sinn Féin has confidence in the gardaí but “zero confidence in the Minister for Justice, the Government, and, for that matter, the Garda Commissioner himself”.

Sinn Féin’s former justice spokesman, Martin Kenny, poured scorn on the idea that the riots following the stabbing could not be predicted by senior gardaí: 

I thought to myself, if it turns out to be a person from abroad who has carried out this attack, the far right will go on the rampage. If I could see that, how did senior Garda management not foresee it?

This was not a motion of confidence in McEntee’s position or that of Garda Commissioner Drew Harris. But the proceedings had that feel for much of the three-and-a-half hours as a raft of TDs queued up to contribute, forgoing speaking time for the chance to both condemn the violence of last week and lay out their position on the minister’s bona fides.

Sinn Féin, said Government benches, was opportunistic, was looking to sow division and discord. A few kilometres away in Farmleigh, Tánaiste and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin accused the party of going for the “electoral jugular”.

In the minds of those on the Government benches, this was about toppling McEntee, taking a scalp, and potentially causing an election.

While McEntee’s opening speech was somewhat low-key, she received full-throated support from her party colleagues, particularly Martin Heydon, the junior agriculture minister, who took issue with Sinn Féin’s Louise O’Reilly saying McEntee needed to be “taken out” over the weekend.

Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys offered an even more vehement response. She accused Sinn Féin of “not being able to police its own party”.

As a long-time viewer of Tuesday evening session of statements, this felt a lot more high-stakes than usual. It also felt a lot more divisive, despite pleas from some corners for unity in the face of far-right hate.

In her closing speech, McEntee was stronger and more forthright, accusing Sinn Féin of “point-scoring” and “calling me names”.

While this wasn’t a vote of confidence and the Government’s future did not depend on it, TDs and the minister fought like it did.