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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance. Let's talk about a story, a very distressing story that is on the Irish Times this morning. It's just a correlation of a number of incidents that have happened that have involved arson attacks, particularly on council homes in Dublin, some 35 in the last year alone. It is seemingly being used as a form of intimidation
but is also traumatising the communities living around those homes and more importantly, costing the local authorities millions of euro as they have to board up these otherwise perfectly good homes. Kitty Holland is the social affairs correspondent with the Irish Times, and she's writing about that this morning. Good morning, Kitty.
Good morning.
Chapter 2: What alarming trend is being reported about arson attacks in Dublin?
It is a terrible thing to happen that innocent people are caught up in whatever. But the word that was used by one council official was an epidemic.
Yeah. Yeah. So that was stated at a meeting in March by the head of the Dublin City Council's Antisocial Behaviour and Estate Management Division, that's Mick Clark. And when I saw that quoted, it kind of made me think, God, I wonder, you know, could we put some numbers on this? So I put queries into all 31 local authorities around the country and 24 of them came back to me. And of those,
14 said that they do have records of arson attacks. And over the last five years, 113 homes, and these are just council homes now, because this happens obviously to private rented and owner occupied homes as well. So we're not even capturing the full extent of this, but in council homes, they've been 113 in the last five years, but it's really ratcheted up in the last year.
There's been almost, there's been 50 of those 113 were just last year. And in Dublin, where there's been about 60 in the last five years, 35 of them were just last year. So it's yeah, it's quite it's it's something that's it's a growing phenomenon.
And I suppose there's a feeling that there where there used to be, which were, you know, awful as well, drive by shootings or people would throw rocks into people's windows and that kind of thing to kind of intimidate them. It's reached new levels now of violence, which, you know, destroy the homes and also are such a huge event then in the community as well.
You know, where people are having to be, there's fire damage to other homes. There's, you know, the whole, the fire trucks and the guards and just the terror of it. So it's a real ratcheting of violence.
And what it is as well, Kitty, is it's broadening the target for this attack. So in other words, somebody somewhere has done something to offend somebody and the retaliation is not against that individual, but perhaps against their mother, their children, their aunt, their father, whoever was there. For the most part, innocent people being caught up in this.
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we saw it most devastatingly there last year in Eden Derry in County Offaly, where, you know, a woman and her grandnephew died in a died in a arson attack, which, you know, we understand was something to do with a relative who was nowhere near the house at the time. And that we are hearing this, that where there would be drug deaths and things like that.
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Chapter 3: How are communities affected by arson attacks on council homes?
The person who actually, you know, is at the beginning of the offence is actually not in the house or is known not to be in the house. And it's to intimidate the whole family and equally, you know, the intimidation then spreads to communities.
So communities are feeling very under threat and under siege by what's happening with one person in a household who may not even be in the household at the time.
I mean, we have to just assume that drugs are key to all of this. Intimidation of this nature tends to follow people who deal in drugs, who sell drugs.
We look at the murder rate, Kitty, from shooting incidents that has absolutely plummeted in recent years because we are told that the drug dealers realise that if they continue to shoot and kill people, it draws too much heat to the organisation and they can't do what they're doing. that logic doesn't seem to apply to these arson attacks, at least not yet.
So is that an indication perhaps that we're not doing enough to investigate and prosecute these?
Well, I mean, I suppose, you know, if someone doesn't get killed in these attacks and, you know, generally they don't. I mean, they're still awful violent events and, you know, and terrifying and people are at risk of losing their lives. But You know, if there's a shooting and a murder, there's a death there. And that's a really, really serious crime because someone has lost their life.
And so a lot of resources then are thrown at that in terms of Garda resources. But this is, you know, like I got on to all the, as I say, all the local authorities. Only 24 came back to me and only 14 are actually tracking it. Only 14 had records of them. Some are tracking it, but didn't have any, like Lee Trump didn't have any arson attacks. There were several around the country.
But ones like Offaly, Cork City, they're not tracking this at all. So, you know, it's potentially just not being taken as seriously as shootings.
But the impact from talking to neighbours and talking to people who work with children is potentially more devastating than a shooting in the community because, you know, it's the talk of the community then and there's the visible evidence of it sitting there in the community for potentially months. I mean, I visited Ballymun yesterday.
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Chapter 4: What statistics reveal the extent of arson incidents in Ireland?
And as you say, it hasn't solved everything, but things are an awful lot better. But this space of attacks, which seem to be only growing, and as I say, is causing, you know, huge mayhem in the communities. And these are, you know, generally communities of deprivation who are already vulnerable to trauma of poverty and addiction and, you know, violence and that kind of thing.
you know, fabulous people living there, fabulous people working hard and trying to make their communities the best they can be and lovely people when you go out and meet them. But this is happening in poorer communities. This is not happening in Dublin Six or, you know, Fox Rock, Killiney or places like that. This has happened.
And so, you know, it's out of sight, out of mind for most decision makers. But, people, yeah, you know, it's not getting the attention it probably should get because it's really being managed by Dublin Fire Brigade and the local authorities or fire brigades, you know, so it's not, it's not getting the Garda attention that it probably should.
Okay, Kitty Holland of the Irish Times writing about that in this morning's newspaper. Thank you very much for joining us. The Clare Byrne Show. With Aviva Insurance.
Weekday mornings at 9 on Newstalk.
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