Gardaí requested removal of tents at Phoenix Park entrance before Biden visit
Garda presence outside Phoenix Park ahead of Joe Biden's visit. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos
Gardaí sent a request to Dublin City Council for the removal of occupied tents at the entrance to Phoenix Park just days ahead of US president Joe Biden’s visit in April.
Dublin City Council internal correspondence released under Freedom of Information shows an email which has a subject line reading “Joe Biden Visit” was sent to the council’s waste management department.
The email was sent on April 7, just five days before Mr Biden arrived in the Republic, and shows that Bridewell Garda Station sought advice from Dublin City Council on how to remove the tents ahead of the visit.
“As people are currently living in these tents [they] would like them removed as gently as possible before the presidential visit,” a staff member wrote to waste management.
The staff member said a public order may be required to remove the tents with the Garda Station requesting “someone on-site” to remove them ahead of Mr Biden’s visit to Áras an Uachtaráin on April 13.
The tents which were removed on April 9 were occupied by at least six people until then and had been in the area for three months.
The email ends with a request to waste management to make contact with Bridewell Garda Station “with any help or ideas about how to remove these tents for the visit”.
The thread of the email shows that it was forwarded from waste management to a Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DHRE) staff member.
A spokesperson for Dublin City Council said: “The email attached was sent to a staff member who was on leave and was therefore not received by the DRHE until after the individuals at that location had moved.
“The DRHE offers assistance to persons found sleeping rough, including those that were at this location, through the provision of emergency accommodation, through the Housing First programme which offers permanent homes and the Dublin Region Outreach Service,” they said.
Documents received under Freedom of Information also show Dublin City Labour councillor Darragh Moriarty questioning the operation after it unfolded.
Mr Moriarty told the : “The callousness of how this seems to have been dealt with is very disturbing.
“You have correspondence here, released under FOI, where you have DCC talking to waste management about people’s tents — where they are living and sleeping — talking about removing them like litter on the street.”
A Garda spokesperson said An Garda Siochána said statutory agencies had been engaging with those living in the tents over a number of weeks, adding that three had previously voluntarily left the area before gardaí and council staff arrived.
“Gardaí engaged with three remaining persons, one of whom, has been re-accommodated.
“The remaining persons removed their own belongings and tents and were further provided with advice and contact information for support agencies and accommodation services and left the area.
“Dublin City Council staff also attended the scene and removed waste left behind,” the spokesperson said.
Streetlink Homeless Support CEO Padraig Drummond described the requests as “shocking” but added he is “not surprised”.
“It’s the failure upon the Government. They don’t want to have conversations with a visiting president about the housing crisis, even though homelessness is rife within the States itself and for the same reasons,” he said.
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