Cormac O'Keeffe: Communities and frontline gardaí victims of 'neglect' 

A screengrab of an incident in Ballyfermot in which a Garda was hit in the side of the head by a missile and two Garda vehicles were damaged. Picture: Twitter

It could have been a lot worse in Ballyfermot last week.

The garda struck with a missile in the side of his head could have been blinded in his left eye if the object hit him a few inches to the side.

Mobile phone footage shows the force of the blow — he was propelled back and stumbled for a few yards, but managed to stay up.

“You know from your training not to hit the ground,” said a garda colleague. “If you go to ground all you need is one lunatic to jump on you.” 

If the garda’s partner was not there and did not draw his baton to keep the mob at bay, it could have been a different story.

And that’s not to mention the woman who was struck by a scrambler on Kylemore Road just a short time before.

The two gardaí, who were in their unmarked car and observing the 50-plus-strong rampaging gang, many on scramblers, were alerted and had to respond.

“The injured party left but it could potentially have been a fatality,” said the garda.

Local Sinn Féin councillor Daithí Doolan said gardaí seemed to be “overwhelmed”.

He said residents he spoke to along Kylemore Road were “terrified” and that they “felt under siege”.

Garda staff numbers

Figures published by the Irish Examiner last week show that the strength in Ballyfermot Garda Station dropped by 25% in the last ten years, from 93 in 2012 to 69 in December 2022.

“That 25% cut to garda numbers mirrors the cut in funding to the local drug task force, local mental health services, youth services and community development projects,” said Mr Doolan.

He said there had been too many promises from ministers, including Justice Minister Helen McEntee, who visited Cherry Orchard last year, but said those promises were “gathering dust”, when action was needed.

Coincidentally, a report published last week by the Policing Authority detailed the reality for people in disadvantaged communities. It is the latest in a long, long list of similar reports, but is timely nonetheless.

Many of the communities told the authority that people do not feel safe and that there was a “lack of respite” from daily fear and intimidation. 

Drug dealing

They spoke of their concerns for their children living among open drug dealing and anti-social behaviour and the impact on people’s “ability to go about the ordinary activities of daily life”.

Residents stay indoors and if they do leave they keep their “heads down” and avoid eye contact.

Some areas say there is a belief that “drug dealing, intimidation, and criminality” are permitted in their areas, but would not be in more affluent communities.

There is a lack of confidence to report crime. The report said the examples they came across “generate an overriding sense of neglect and exasperation”.

Perpetrators of anti-social behaviour appear to act with “impunity”.

The report said that in “every one” of the meetings, people wanted community policing, with gardaí investing time getting to know people and groups — as opposed to a garda car driving through the area.

It said that in some communities considerable progress had been made establishing strong working relationships with gardaí.

People wanted “more gardaí present” on foot or on bikes. In terms of a sense of safety and reliability, that presence was described as “critical”.