Fine Gael promises taskforce to examine renewal of Cork City amid crime and safety concerns
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Fine Gael has pledged to establish a taskforce within the first 100 days of government to look at renewing and rebooting Cork City.
Justice Minister and the party’s deputy leader Helen McEntee made the promise during a canvass of the city centre with Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe, on Monday, where they doubled down on embattled Fine Gael Senator John McGahon’s candidacy.
Mr McGahon was found by the High Court to be civilly liable for an assault in 2018, but the two senior Fine Gael figures did not directly answer questions about whether his inclusion on the ticket would damage its reputation as the party of ‘law and order’.
“Senator McGahan has expressed remorse for what happened on the night,” Ms McEntee said. "But he was brought before a criminal court with a jury of his peers who found him not guilty.
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“He is on the ticket, he will be running in the constituency of Louth and it is very much for the people of Louth to decide who they want to represent them.”
Asked if she would prefer if he was not on the ticket, she said: “He is somebody that I have worked with, somebody that I feel has done a huge amount of work on the ground. He has expressed remorse not just recently, but in the past, on the incident itself.
"We are a party that will always uphold the law and what we know is that Senator McGahon went through a criminal jury trial and they were the people that saw and heard all of the evidence, all of the facts that came before them and they found him not guilty."
Pressed on crime and security concerns in Cork City, Ms McEntee said the Cork taskforce would by similar to the taskforce appointed by Government last May to examine issues affecting Dublin city centre.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris met city councillors last month to hear their concerns about garda numbers, city centre policing and anti-social behaviour.
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan also met councillors to discuss poor public transport services.
Ms McEntee said last year saw the highest ever number of gardaí in Templemore since before covid, but a “step change” was needed now, with Fine Gael proposing a second Garda training college to support the work of Templemore.
“There are other issues too — infrastructure, the built-environment, dereliction, city centre services and having people living in the city centre,” she said.
“Yes, we need more gardaí but we need to look at it in the whole, we need to look at all of the other potential issues that are feeding into peoples’ concerns.”