Gardaí should be trained to deal with violence against LGBTQIA+ people, councillors say

The council also wants to increase the overall number of gardaí in a bid to prevent anti-social behaviour, public order offences and assaults

The Dublin City Council motion also calls for supports for LGBT Liaison Officers and Diversity Officers within An Garda Síochána. File photo

Gardaí should be specifically trained in dealing with violence against the LGBTQIA+ community, a group of Dublin City councillors has said.

The Fine Gael members on Dublin City Council proposed the motion on Monday after a number of reports of attacks on members of the community in recent months.

Councillor Danny Byrne, who represents the south inner city, said that while councillors "acknowledge the work done by An Garda Siochana", we "cannot let our guard down".

The motion reads:

"That Dublin City Council, while acknowledging the steps and actions taken to date by the Minister for Justice and the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána, including ‘Operation Citizen’ (to focus on anti-social behaviour, public order and quality of life issues, assaults and high volume crimes in Dublin City), expresses deep concern regarding the safety of members of the public in Dublin City, especially attacks on members of the LGBTQIA+ community and other minorities."

It calls on the council and gardaí to increase visible Garda patrols in Dublin city, to further support local policing initiatives and to increase the overall number of gardaí in a bid to prevent anti-social behaviour, public order offences and assaults from happening.

It adds that all members of An Garda Síochána should receive "further comprehensive training regarding LGBTQIA+, trans/gender diversity issues and specifically receive training in dealing with and providing specialist support to victims of LGBTQ+ attacks". 

It also calls for supports for LGBT Liaison Officers and Diversity Officers within An Garda Síochána. It says that they should provide specialist assistance to members of the LGBTQ+ community and says that an awareness campaign should be established.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee said that gardaí are committed to diversity and inclusion.

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"I think this is an issue that the gardaí themselves are very much committed to. We have over 350 members of An Garda Síochana within the overall police service who are specifically trained and designated as diversity and inclusion officers who are working with their teams on the ground. 

"We have a number of different measures that have been put in place in recent times with new online reporting mechanisms for people to report where crimes have been committed specifically for the LGBTI+ community.

"We have a communications campaign which the gardai are going to be undertaking to make sure that members of that community are aware that there are members who have specialist training."