Rioters in Dublin have caused ‘enormous’ physical and reputational damage, Finance Minister says

The Finance Minister has condemned the violent riots in Dublin yesterday saying those involved have caused not only “enormous” physical damage, but also reputational damage to the country.

Speaking to reporters in Cork today, Michael McGrath said the the full force of the law must be used against “thugs” who wreaked destruction in the capital.

The violence flared after a knife attack on three young children and their care assistant outside a school on Parnell Square East shortly after 1.30pm yesterday. 

“This was sheer thuggery on behalf of a relatively small number of people but it caused enormous damage, physical damage but reputational damage to our country as well,” Mr McGrath said of the rioting.

“I don’t accept the notion that they have some carefully considered political philosophy.

“I think we had a group of people, many of whom jumped on the bandwagon, a lot of teenagers, young men in hoodies who didn’t have the courage to show their own faces and who decided to attack Gardaí, to get in the way of the work that they were doing, who tried to interfere with a crime scene, who took it upon themselves to attack Dublin Fire Brigade, attack public infrastructure of our public transport system and decided to break into shops and start looting.” 

The Fianna Fáil TD said the “full force of the law” now needs to be applied in relation to those involved in the serious public disorder that occurred subsequent to the knife attack and welcomed that some arrests had already been made.

“I know that the Gardaí will go through all of the CCTV footage over the period ahead and I expect that many, many more will be brought before the courts over the period ahead and the Gardaí will be given whatever resources they need to investigate what happened in Dublin city centre last night.

“It is not acceptable, we never want to see it again and there will be a very strong response from all forms of the State,” he said.

Mr McGrath said the full facts of the stabbing incident have yet to be determined and described the rioting as an “opportunistic response by a group of thugs who took the law into their own hands and who brought shame on themselves, their families and their country”.

More to be invested in monitoring far-right 

Asked if he had concerns about the far-right gaining traction, the Minister said:

“I think among a very small portion of the population these views are taking hold and we have to be alive to that. 

“We have to recognise that it is presenting a risk to us.

“These are people who do not recognise the normal rules, are not willing to respect the rules that any normal functional society has, so we are going to have to invest more in monitoring their activities, in being alert to what they’re planning to do and respond to that in a very decisive way, but I do think that there was a very large element of opportunism in what happened last night.” 

Shock over knife attack 

Speaking in relation to the knife attack, Mr McGrath said he was “shocked” by the incident and said his thoughts were with the injured young children and care assistant.

He also moved to pay tribute to of the public who intervened in a bid to assist and to emergency service workers who subsequently attended the scene.

“I want to commend the bravery of the of the public who responded in the first instance – it must have been a truly horrific scene that they came across.

“They showed extraordinary courage in responding, in stepping in, in putting themselves in harm’s way and I want to recognise all of the emergency service providers who responded.

“This is not the kind of crime that we ever expect to see on our streets… to think that these poor children had their innocence stolen from them and were violently attacked in this manner is incomprehensible. I just cannot wrap my head around it,” he said.

Gardaí say they are following a “definite line of inquiry” in relation to the incident at lunchtime in Dublin city. A male in his 50s is a person of interest in the investigation.