Deputy Gary Gannon: I cannot help but acknowledge that there is no representative from the Department of Justice here. This is probably the third time I have raised a Topical Issue on the issue of safety in and around Dublin city centre and neither of those-----

An Ceann Comhairle: If a Deputy is unhappy and wants the Minister from a particular Department to be present, the Department is supposed to liaise with Deputies and if a Deputy indicates to it that he or she is not happy and wants to wait until the Minister is available, we will always facilitate that.

Deputy Gary Gannon: Absolutely but it is also important to put on record that I received a communication from the Department of Justice that did not offer a change. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, will do in terms of dealing with this issue because there is an immediacy to it. I want to discuss chronic law-breaking not just in the north inner city of Dublin because it is wider than that. I will break it down to be a bit more specific. Like most people around the Chamber, I am spending most evenings knocking on doors and talking to people in the run-up to the referendums and the local elections. The issue that comes up consistently is the issue of law-breaking, open drug-dealing, antisocial behaviour and the feeling that this has no consequences.

It takes a multitude of different forms. When I am up around Dominick Street, the issue is people hanging around the Luas stop, jumping on the Luas trams, snatching phones, jumping off at the next stop and moving on and people attacking students around the DIT campus. On Dorset Street, which is a gateway to the city, there is a high level of dereliction, an issue that comes under the brief of the Minister of State. With regard to the laneways off Dorset Street, there is a feeling that there is an acceptance that drug dealing will happen there without any degree of enforcement. If I move down towards the Royal Canal way that goes into the IFSC, this beautiful renovation undertaken by Dublin City Council in the past number of years has become a no-go zone. It is a place where you will see any number of predominantly younger children, who themselves are victimised by being brought into this trade, flying up and down on scooters delivering different packages from one end to the next to the detriment of people's safety in the area. Up in Hardwicke Street, there is also the belief that open drug-dealing is being tolerated. I am certainly not the first to say that in this Chamber over the past four decades.

There is a belief among the residential communities in the north inner city that what is happening happens without consequence. I do not doubt for a second that there has been a large increase in the number of gardaí in the commercial city centre, which is really welcome because people have to go about their business there. However, the residents of that environment obviously do not feel that their minimum expectation of being able to open their door and go about their day feeling safe has been met. That is really frustrating. I do not for a second believe there is only a policing solution to this issue. I think it is far more complex but in the immediate term, people just want to know that if they call An Garda Síochána, a garda will turn up and that they can go about their day without seeing people in a chronic condition of chaos, which also seems to be tolerated. That is the problem. Wherever I go knocking on doors around the north inner city, people highlight the feeling of being unsafe and that is because they are unsafe.

Beyond that, there is a core belief that the authorities and indeed the State do not have these people's back. They rightly say that what is tolerated in the north inner city would not be tolerated in any other part of the city or country. When I attended a meeting of residents in Dorset Street a couple of weeks ago, they highlighted the dereliction, the decay, the absence of lighting and the poor visibility on the laneways. They made a comparison between Dorset Street and other arteries into the city such as Ranelagh where the sequence of streets is almost the exact same but where there is a world of difference regarding what is tolerated. Once again, I have come in pursuing answers and I hope the Minister of State can give them to me. We need a greater degree of action.

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