There has been an “exponential increase” in the number of protests, many of them against migrants, since the start of the year with an additional 400 gardaí drafted in to back up frontline colleagues, a meeting of the Policing Authority has heard.
Assistant Commissioner Angela Willis has said the demonstrations – which have increased fourfold in Dublin since the start of the year – were often made much more complex by the presence of counterprotesters. In such cases, two rival groups had to be “kept apart” in operations that were proving expensive.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said the policing resources now being absorbed by the protests “could be used for other things”.
“They are policing resources that are denied to [areas] with pressing social problems ... antisocial behaviour, street level [drug] dealing,” he said. “The uniform resources we use for protests are being directed from those.”
[ Irish Times poll: Majority of voters support ban on protests at refugee centresOpens in new window ]
Speaking at a public meeting of the authority in Dublin on Thursday, Ms Willis said protests were often “very challenging” for the gardaí on duty with “some very unpleasant scenes” due to “the behaviour of a few”. At present there were several cases – “less than 10″ – before the courts arising from incidents at protests or on the fringes of the events.
Ms Willis, who is in charge of policing in the Garda’s Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR), explained there had been 115 protests in the capital so far this year, compared to 30 in the same period last year. In 2022 there were 307 events in total and 395 in 2021, which included pandemic-related protests.
“The vast majority of the protests we are responding to at the moment, we could broadly describe them as anti-immigration sentiment,” Ms Willis said. “We obviously recognise the right to peaceful protest and that extends to the expression of views that could be described as controversial or unpopular. We are very mindful of the importance of the right to peaceful protest in a democratic society.”
She expected the protests to continue in the medium term and perhaps into the long-term. “We have no sense that they’re finished yet,” she said. “It is a significant additional cost.” For example, while public order units were rarely required, they had to be on standby in the event disorder broke out.
“I know we have deployed an additional 400 [Garda] members since January in support of [front line gardaí],” she said. “That’s a combination of existing resources and people brought in to work additional hours. We’re stretched, but we are still managing at the moment.”
A “specific operation” had been created to deal with the protests, and co-ordinate the Garda response, as well as record intelligence around protests. Ms Willis said that “on occasion” gardaí “had to intervene where protest activity is reaching the [threshold] of criminality”. Garda inspectors had been appointed as liaison officers to aid staff and residents at accommodation centres for migrants which were often targeted by the protest groups.
While the Garda tried to engage with the organisers of protests, some of the events were put in place at short notice or the strategy of those involved “was constantly changing and adapting”.
At the same Policing Authority meeting, Mr Harris said he was concerned at attacks on Garda members. He was speaking in the wake of an incident in Ballyfermot on Monday when a group of teenagers and men surrounded two gardaí – one of them was hit in the face with a glass bottle that had been thrown at him.
The Garda Representative Association, which represents around 12,000 rank and file gardaí, has said more personnel were required to bolster numbers on the front line. Mr Harris said there had been a “slow increase” in the number of attacks on gardaí, with about 1,000 such incidents per year and approximately 270 to 300 injuries sustained by gardaí when assaulted on duty.
He said his role was to ensure members of the force were properly trained, equipped and supported in the face of challenging tasks they were called on to perform. In the period since Covid-19, while assaults showed some increase, he was “optimistic” for Irish society. He said social media was being used to document more violence, though the Republic was a “low crime society”.
