Differences deepen between frontline gardaí and Garda HQ over deployment of public order units to quell disorder

A youngster throws a bottle towards gardai during a stand off with protesters at the former site of the Crown Paints factory in Coolock, north Dublin.

Differences have deepened between frontline gardaí and Garda HQ over the deployment of public order units to quell disorder in north Dublin on Monday.

It comes as the Garda Representative Association is waiting to hear back from Garda Commissioner Drew Harris after formally requesting an “urgent meeting” to discuss the security of its members in Coolock.

Uniform gardaí, some of them just out of Garda college, were scrambled to deal with escalating tensions at a planned asylum accommodation centre on the Malahide Road on Monday morning.

The tensions grew after a number of people broke into the old Crown Paints complex, where they firebombed a JCB and stole and burned mattresses at the site entrance.

A small number of local gardaí tried to ease tensions as calls went out to uniform gardaí across the city to head to the scene.

Commissioner Harris said that around 60 uniform gardaí were there by mid morning and that a public order unit was deployed, arriving sometime after.

Frontline garda sources have said that a public order unit had been at the site overnight on Sunday and early on Monday, to enable workers remove a makeshift ‘Coolock Says No’ camp at the entrance and go into the site to make preparations for the arrival of asylum seekers.

These sources said the public order unit was directed to leave at 4am. They criticised the decision not to keep them there, on standby, in case crowds gathered to protest against the work.

In a statement on Tuesday, the GRA said there was a “clear delay” in the deployment of the public order unit and said that this “potentially exposed our members at the scene to extremely volatile and dangerous conditions for a number of hours”.

On Monday night, the commissioner said he “rejected entirely” claims that the public order units were slow arriving.

Management sources told the Irish Examiner that the deployment of a public order unit in the early hours of Monday to escort workers enter the site was based on a “risk assessment” – and that this assessment was based on prior notification.

Sources said that having public order units deployed in case there is trouble was “not a direction” the organisation wanted to go in and that their deployment is part of the graduated approach gardaí use, starting with uniformed members.

“If trouble starts, public order units can be deployed and the unit was deployed on Monday fairly quickly,” one source said.

Another relevant factor, one source said, was that the organisation “just doesn’t have the numbers” to have a permanent, full-time public order unit, which the GRA is seeking.

Meanwhile, gardaí are investigating a reported attack on a small tent camp, occupied by asylum seekers, on City Quay, in Dublin city centre, early Wednesday morning.

Eight tents were destroyed and slashed by attackers, some apparently brandishing weapons.

Garda HQ said gardaí in Pearse Street “responded to report of criminal damage on City Quay in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Speaking from Nairobi, Keyna, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said of the attack: “We should not ever allow ourselves to get to the level where we witness such attacks on fellow human beings, irrespective of how people have come into the country, or whatever your views are.”