As violent crime surges across Ireland, particularly in major cities, few politicians have been willing or able to admit the severity of the crisis.
With Fine Gael styling itself as the “Party of Law and Order,” and insisting that Ireland is “a safe country,” it’s seemed for several years now that the government is reluctant to admit the full scale of the problem.
Fine Gael is the party of law and order. We believe that government should be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime.
To find out more, visit https://t.co/AcPpTZ7fQE #LookForward pic.twitter.com/Oyi3vfeA4q
— Fine Gael (@FineGael) January 17, 2020
Which makes it all the more significant when a government politician breaks ranks to talk plainly about the issue.
Last year, Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer told the Seanad that parts of Cork city were being terrorised by anti-social behaviour to the point of becoming “no-go zones.” And this week, Galway Fine Gael TD Ciaran Cannon reinforced that message.
“It’s a difficult thing to have to say, but recognising a problem is the first step in solving it,” the former minister said.
“Our capital city at night is a dangerous place, where you feel deeply concerned about your personal safety. Walk from the Spire to Stephen’s Green at 10.00pm and see for yourself.”
It’s a difficult thing to have to say, but recognising a problem is the first step in solving it. Our capital city at night is a dangerous place, where you feel deeply concerned about your personal safety. Walk from the Spire to Stephen’s Green at 10.00pm and see for yourself.
— Ciaran Cannon (@ciarancannon) February 10, 2022
It’s worth noting that it’s not like these are opposition spokespeople or enemies of the government trying to make them look bad – these are government officials. So for politicians such as these to come out and say “Heuston, we have a problem” should help to convey the extent of the issue.
Now, Cannon is absolutely correct that recognising the problem is key, and I’m sure this acknowledgement is welcome to many people in Irish cities who live in fear of violent crime. But more welcome again are proposed solutions, which is exactly what Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan offered this week.
Speaking to Justice Minister Helen McEntee, O’Callaghan proposed amending bail laws to “strengthen the protection of women” from assaults. In short, under his proposal, if a suspect was accused of violent assault, they would be denied bail if they already had previous convictions for such assaults in the past.
Now, this suggestion is perfect common sense. If you know a guy has a habit of assaulting people, and he’s accused of assault again, it’s probably not a good idea to let him out on bail – right? Even if you disagree for some reason, I think most people would admit it’s thinking along the right lines.
Well, not according to Justice Minister Helen McEntee.
She responded by saying, in a nutshell, that Ireland’s current laws were sufficient to handle this issue and no new legislation was needed. (There was more to her reply than that, which you can read for yourself here, but that was the long and short of it).
I’m willing to believe that this may well be true – maybe Ireland already has sufficiently robust laws on the books for dealing with these types of violent crimes. But if that’s the case, why aren’t they being used? Something is objectively not working here.
Violent crime has been climbing for years in Ireland, stalled only by the Covid lockdowns. While crime rates have been down in the last year or two, for months during that period it was literally a criminal offence to leave your house. You can’t really attack or burgle people if there are police checkpoints every 5 metres and the country is under quarantine. So this anomaly doesn’t tell us much about the overall trend of society.
The trend is towards a growing danger on our streets, and at least some politicians have the honesty to acknowledge the problem and propose sensible potential solutions.