Looting and damaging the city is not making a “political statement”, but is simply “criminality”, according to Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe.
Speaking to The Anton Savage Show this morning, Mr Donohoe condemned the recent riots in Dublin’s city centre, where his own constituency is based.
“I never thought I would see a part of the city I know so well, a part of the city I go through every day, have a burned bus on it and be the scene of such violence,” he said.
“When I arrived there on Friday morning I had so many different emotions – my first being the deep concern I still have for those children.”
Part of the city’s centre was plunged into violence on Thursday after three children and a woman were stabbed on Parnell Square.
Double decker Dublin Bus destroyed by flames. @Barrywhyte85
Mr Donohoe said the rioters were a “mixture” of far-right rioters and criminals – but there was no excuse for any of them to cause so much damage in the city.
“In terms of the economic cost [of damages], I can simply say it is going to be very significant,” he said.
“Breaking into Arnott’s and stealing clothing is not an act of political statement- it’s criminality.”
He added there is no reason for any sort of protest following the knife attack, as many claim the far-right unrest was rooted in opposition to money spent on migration.
“That view and that kind of debate cannot be used, and I will never allow that to set the context to damage for criminal damage,” he said.
“If you look at the additional funding being used to house people fleeing war, that is not taking space or a single cent or euro that we are spending on dealing with our housing difficulty.
“The reality is every cent we have spent in dealing with the social consequence of migration over the last 18 months has been ton top of money we are already planning to spend on the health sector and housing.”
Donohoe on finding those reponsible
The Public Expenditure Minister said the Government have several objectives following the riots, including tracking down those responsible, potentially with the use of artificial intelligence.
“We have now thousands of hours off footage of everyone who was involved in those scenes on Thursday night,” Mr Donohoe said.
“We now need to use technology as opposed to man hours to detect those people.”
He also said legislation to introduce bodycams for Gardaí will be “accelerated” following the violence.a
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