McEntee: 'Collective effort' needed to ensure safety of communities like Cherry Orchard
And As Visited Equine Cherry And Munity Political Stephen Minister Well Justice Picture: Collins /collins As Representatives Met Orchard With Mcentee Centre Gardaí, For Helen Photos Local
Justice Minister Helen McEntee has again condemned the ramming of a Garda car in Dublin following a meeting with the local community to assess how antisocial behaviour can be reduced.
She described the meeting in Cherry Orchard on Friday as positive and as the first step towards addressing the social challenges behind the recent incident.
“I have to again condemn what happened on Monday night,” she said. “It is utterly unacceptable that this community should have to put up with this type of behaviour, or that members of the Garda Síochána would be treated in this way.”
However, she denied these actions are being taken solely because a Garda car was involved in this incident, unlike previous allegations of antisocial behaviour made by councillors in various regions.
“They haven’t been ignored,” she said. “We’ve been speaking to local gardaí who for some months now have been working with the local community responding to these type of incidents, and trying to put in place the most effective policing response.”
She outlined longer-term plans, including funding for youth groups, and said these will benefit communities outside Dublin that are also facing challenges.
"We have three community safety partnerships that are being piloted across the country," she said.
“One in the north-inner city (Dublin), one in Longford, and one in Waterford. This is the long term plan, the whole focus is community safety in an area dealing with these kind of issues.
"It shouldn’t just be the gardaí, it shouldn’t just be the local authorities. It’s a collective effort that needs to happen.”
Ms McEntee said as the pilots develop they will bring together local representatives, gardai, Tusla, HSE, and younger people among others to set out a localised plans, adding that those plans will be supported by Government.
The justice minister also urged social media companies to take action when similar content is posted online.
Video of what happened on Monday was uploaded to various social platforms and widely shared.
“This incident may have happened a couple of years ago and no one would have heard about it because social media wasn’t what it is now,” she said.
“Obviously we differentiate between what is criminal content and what is harmful content.”
She said it is a very challenging environment because it is so easy to share content.
“We have work in the pipeline to be able to work with the very large online providers we have in this country,” she said.
Separately, Ms McEntee and Minister of State for Law Reform James Browne met Garda Commissioner Drew Harris and Angela Willis, Assistant Commissioner for the Dublin Metropolitan Region.
They agreed the most effective way to deal with antisocial behaviour is through supports for communities including Youth Diversion Programmes and other services.
These will include awards from the Community Safety Innovation Fund, reinvesting proceeds of crime seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) including €135,000 for a project running in around Ballyfermot.
They also agreed that high-visibility policing is crucial to ensuring that people feel safe in towns and cities around the country.