Rory Hearne

This is not an isolated incident.

This is an escalation of a feud that's going on that the guards have to intervene in.

Ballymun cannot be left alone.

when we see something and something much, much worse is going to happen.

Well, the Minister for Justice said that, you know, this is unacceptable and he will, similar to what Barry outlined there, they will take action to address it.

But we're not seeing it.

We're not seeing the action on the ground.

We need high visibility initiatives that make this completely unacceptable.

Like, how is it tolerated?

Can I just respond there?

Absolutely.

Gardaí, and I will be completely, you know, say this, Gardaí are doing their best.

And I speak with Gardaí on a regular basis, highlight the issues, and I think they are doing their best.

But they are operating, as we've outlined, in a situation of lack of resources.

And I'm not talking about a police state.

What I'm talking about very clearly...

is that communities where we're seeing a high level of intimidation, of drug dealing going on, of gangs, which are absolutely linked to high deprivation and communities that have been in many ways neglected by the state for too long, that there needs to be a high visibility of policing to ensure that the state is saying this is not tolerated.

And also there also needs to be a higher level intervention by the Gardaí.

How are gangs allowed to operate?

How are they allowed to operate?