An Garda Síochána: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-13 ============================================================ Chris Andrews (SF), Labour Panel I acknowledge the fantastic work An Garda Síochána does, in particular community gardaí. I also acknowledge the recent departure of Superintendent Dermot McKenna from Pearse Street Garda station. He was very committed, helpful and engaged with the local community. The residents appreciated the hard work and commitment he put in and his engagement with them. I also wish the new superintendent in Pearse Street Garda station, Mick O'Keeffe, well. He has big shoes to fill but he has already hit the ground running on some local issues, and I know he will continue that commitment to the local community. I cannot speak highly enough, as others have done, of the work and commitment of local community gardaí. They do a fantastic job working with local groups, individuals and resource centres in so many ways. City Quay, which is not too far from this House, and Pearse Street have constant issues with serious criminality, and gardaí regularly meet residents and work through the particular issues. The residents appreciate what gardaí do and they have regularly acknowledged that to me and to the gardaí themselves. Gardaí regularly get abuse and harassment and they have to deal with it. By and large, they do so very professionally, and genuine residents know and appreciate the difficulties that gardaí have. As was mentioned, if something happens in the course of a garda's work, for example, while chasing people on scramblers, they should not face legal action. They are fighting some criminals with one arm tied behind their back and they are fearful of the consequences of legal action. It is just not right that they have to face that when they go out to work each day. Inspector Aidan Murphy and his colleagues Mark Scanlon and Niamh McCarthy in Pearse Street station, and John Healy, Anthony Kelly and Cathal Dunne in Irishtown Garda station, go above and beyond. They are very committed. They do so much work that is not seen and they really care for people in the community. The difficulty is, as Senator McDowell mentioned, that they do not have the numbers, and they are stretched to breaking point. Garda numbers in the south inner city of Dublin have essentially been stagnant for the past decade, despite significant population growth. There is significant criminal activity in the inner city. Gardaí cannot challenge that on a shoestring budget in terms of numbers. There needs to be high visibility policing, and that has definitely improved, but there is a long way to go before residents in Ringsend, Pearse Street, Kevin Street and across the inner city feel safe. I have another issue that I want to raise. Israel will come here to play Ireland in the Nations League on 4 October 2026. I honestly do not know why the Government is sticking its head in the sand and looking the other way in relation to that. The Government says it is up to the FAI to decide if the team plays Israel and the decision has nothing to do with the Government. This will come during the time Ireland holds the EU Presidency. There will be a lot of policing requirements for that, and there will be policing requirements for the Ireland-Israel match, if it goes ahead and I sincerely hope it does not. The Government says it is not up to it whether the match goes ahead or how it is policed. It is leaving to An Garda Síochána and the FAI to decide something like this. When Poland refused to play Russia, there were no consequences for Poland because it had government support. In Ireland, RTÉ is not participating in Eurovision, which is very welcome, so there are plenty of precedents for refusing to engage with genocidal Israel. It is disappointing that the FAI is willing to ignore Irish football and its own congress by facilitating sportswashing. When it comes to policing, will the Government engage with the FAI and An Garda Síochána to ensure that participants in the match with Israel will be security screened or are they going to look the other way and allow Israel Defense Forces, IDF, members who have participated in genocide to come into this country? Is there any sense that the Government is going to take action and hold Israel and the Israeli authorities to account or is it going to allow killers to come here and enjoy and sportswash football, and then off they go again? It will obviously be a big security job, and the Government has to take responsibility for it. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-13/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:56+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-13