Varadkar and McEntee meet some of those who intervened in Parnell Square attack

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee and Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe on Sunday evening met with some of the people who intervened and helped to stop the attack on young children and a care worker in Parnell Square on Thursday.

The meeting took place in Governnent Buildings and Mr Varadkar thanked them for their courage - literally placing themselves in the line of danger.

Speaking after the meeting, the Mr Varadkar said: “They showed extraordinary courage, responding quickly and bravely in order to protect young children and their care worker. We are all immensely grateful to them. On a day of violence and tragedy, they were the light amid the darkness. 

“I wanted to say thank you to them personally on behalf of the Government and wider community.”

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Earlier, Ms McEntee defended the speed of the Garda response to riots in Dublin city centre last Thursday.

“What we saw on Thursday night was probably one of the quickest mobilisations of such a large number of members from the Public Order Unit but also much wider units across the country coming together to respond to these thugs and these criminals who attempted to wreak havoc right across our city”.

“We had 220 members in full public order gear, the most we’ve ever had before at one given time,” she said in Dublin city centre on Sunday, arguing that the riots had been contained in a “short space of time” and that order was restored “well before midnight”.

She said there was a strong police presence on the ground in Dublin city centre which would continue.

Ms McEntee confirmed that she intended to expand legislation currently being drafted to allow for the wider use of Facial Recognition Technology by the Garda, with plans to publish legislation in the coming weeks and enact it as soon as possible. Gardaí are examining over 6,000 of CCTV footage related to the riots.

“I intend to ensure this legislation will now cover these type of events, these type of riots, any type of protest which escalates to this level” she said.

“We need facial recognition technology [FRT] to be able to respond to those types of incidents. Gardaí should not have to spend thousands of hours trawling through footage to identify these thugs.”

The original intention was to allow FRT be used for serious offences such as murder, rape, terrorism and child sexual abuse. Following a Coalition spat after the Green Party objected to the inclusion of FRT in legislation enabling the use of Garda bodycams, demanding a separate piece of legislation be drafted covering the use of the technology.

Patrick Costello, the Dublin South Central Green Party TD who has outlined concerns over FRT, said the use of the technology on rioting and violent disorder investigation was “not necessarily a bad thing” but urged that the legislation not be rushed and that proper scrutiny and safeguards had to be put in place.

Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney has said that it was the job of everyone in Government and the Opposition to unite in response to “disgraceful scenes of thuggery and chaos”.

He also criticised Sinn Féin for “trying to turn this into a political issue” and to undermine Government and the leadership of the Garda.

He said there were parts of Dublin city where rioting was “causing complete carnage” and conceded it “took time” for the Garda to get control of the situation. He said 400 Gardaí were on the streets, however, at very short notice.

There was an increased Garda presence in Dublin city centre over the weekend following rioting in the city on Thursday night which came after a man stabbed several people, including children, outside a school on Parnell Square.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio‘s This Week programme on Sunday, Sinn Féin’s enterprise spokeswoman Louise O’Reilly said her party is considering tabling a no-confidence motion in Ms McEntee in the Dáil.

“I think at this stage we need to focus on what happened on Thursday ... There was a failure to keep people safe in Dublin city ... It left gardaí exposed, it left our emergency services exposed.

“There was a period in which control of the city was lost. That is a very grave and a very, very serious matter.

“This is an issue that has been building for months and the minister doesn’t recognise the scale of it, and if she doesn’t recognise or understand the scale of the issue, then how could anyone have confidence in her capacity to address it ... The Minister should resign.

Mr Coveney defended the Government’s approach to trying to address social issues and crime prevention in the north inner city, where the riots began. He said there had been a dramatic increase in the visibility of Gardai on the streets since Thursday, which needs to continue.

He said Sinn Féin and others were seeking to create “division and further drama”. He said Dublin city centre was safe “for the most part” but that clearly “there are tensions in some parts of Dublin that we need to respond to”.

“We need to learn lessons from that, make sure it doesn’t happen again, and I believe that can happen under the current leadership of An Garda Síochána, and I know it can happen under Helen McEntee as well,” speaking on This Week programme.

He said legislation toughening sentencing for assaulting a Guard needed to be enforced and that the Garda should be equipped with the legislation they need, adding that there had been a “significant suite” of new legislation and that new laws would allow for the use of bodycams and CCTV more effectively.

He said he was “very confident” that Ms McEntee would have enough support if Sinn Féin tabled a motion of no confidence.

He said there would be a detailed response on the Garda approach and on lessons to be learned.

Minister of State Jack Chambers expressed confidence in Ms McEntee and has condemned the “mayhem and the chaos that was brought by a criminal mob and how that was stirred up by a very dangerous cohort online”.

Mr Chambers commended those on the frontline who responded to the violence. He said the gardaí who were on the frontline “deserve our support” and said comments by opposition politicians are turning mayhem into “political gameplaying”.

“That is not what we need. We don’t need reckless populism, and sowing division and creating political chaos. What we need is unity of purpose to actually bring the resolve to resource the gardaí, to learn from what happened last week and to ensure that we restore that sense of safety on our streets,” he told RTÉ's This Week in Politics.

Mr Donohoe paid tribute to the “quiet heroic efforts” of Dublin City Council staff who sought to repair the capital following the destruction of Thursday night’s riots.

“On Friday morning when I went down there, I met the city council cleaners who I understand were there from 3.30am, and when I arrived down there all the lamp-posts in O’Connell Street were being repainted or had been repainted,” he said told the Anton Savage show on Newstalk.

Mr Donohoe, who represents the Dublin central constituency, said the events on Thursday were caused by two parties: the far-right who sought to use the attack that afternoon to further their anti-immigrant sentiment, as well as the looting and criminality by “thugs”.

Asked if the response by gardaí was sufficient, he said guards responded “as well as they could in situations that are unprecedented”.

Meanwhile, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has are called on workers to assemble at the GPO in Dublin at 1pm on Monday “to show their solidarity with all the people of the capital and to clearly denounce this violence and riotous behaviour in a solemn and respectful way.” – Additional reporting PA