John O'Donoghue, 'no room for complacency'
The Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, has asked the Garda Commissioner to step up patrols to prevent unprovoked attacks on pedestrians on the streets of Dublin. The Minister was responding to reports on RTÉ Radio of a number of horrific attacks on young people.
Several listeners told Marian Finucane about young people who had suffered serious injuries when they had become the victims of unprovoked attacks on the streets of Dublin. Speaking at the annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors in Salthill in County Galway, the Minister revealed that there had been 27 such attacks on men under the age of 25 in the capital since the beginning of this year. He said that while that number was relatively low in comparison with cities of equal size across Europe, there was no room for complacency.
Association President Edward Dooney complained that because of what he described as the 'pressure of management education' members no longer had time to stop and talk to people on the street, to learn of their troubles and to see how they could help. With all these pressures, he told the Minister we are losing the common touch.
