This week, Dublin Chamber met with senior members of Government, Dublin City Council, Fáilte Ireland and An Garda Síochána to provide strategic input and assistance into the ongoing response to last week’s events in the city centre.

Safety in Dublin has been a concern for Dublin Chamber since our Global Reputation report in 2019, where it first arose as an issue. Safety and perceptions of safety are not solely a policing matter, as they also entail the “look and feel” of a street, and the passive surveillance of people using a place for shopping, dining, hospitality and to get to work or education. Having a plan for the city centre, between the canals, has been a particular focus for our lobbying activities since then, heightened by the changing patterns of footfall in town since Covid and the many new patterns of working that have emerged.

On Friday 24^th October, Dublin Chamber had the first of what has now been many meetings with An Garda Síochána and Dublin City Council, including Chief Superintendent Patrick McMenamin as well as Dublin City Council CEO, Richard Shakespeare. These meetings are focused initially on the immediate measures required to restore confidence in public order and to help support the many customer-facing businesses in the city centre. Footfall and business in town have suffered and we will be doing our best to ensure that this recovers. Some initial details of these measures are outlined at the end of this message.

In addition, we have met with both Minister Simon Coveney and Minister of State Neale Richmond at the department of Enterprise, as well as Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee. Here we have discussed the medium to longer term issues regarding safety in Dublin, and the impact on staff, investment, and the city’s reputation.

Dublin Chamber’s elected council were hosted by Deputy Cormac Devlin TD in Leinster House this week, in which all matters affecting Dublin business were discussed. At the forefront of Council members’ discussions with members of the Oireachtas, were both the direct and indirect consequences of the events that took place in Dublin last week. Outlining the costs of what unfolded in Dublin last week, be it physical damage, damage to the reputational value of Dublin, or the damage inflicted on members of staff, friends and family in response to someone's diverse background.

Council members had the opportunity to raise some of these issues when speaking with to Tánaiste, Micheál Martin, Minister for Housing, Local government and Heritage, Darragh O’ Brien, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Simon Coveney, Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Dara Calleary. Additional members of the Oireachtas who engaged with Dublin Chamber council included Labour leader, Deputy Ivana Bacik, Deputy Emer Higgins, Deputy John Lahart, Alan Farrell and many others.

The heightened Garda presence in the city, with over 100 extra police on the streets, will remain in place until the New Year. These numbers will be stepped down gradually, as other policing measures are brought to bear. Many of this year’s graduates from Templemore will be on Dublin’s streets from the 15^th December. The use of body cameras has been accelerated, with a pilot in the city centre from early next year. The Gardaí will be commencing Operation Tairg, an initiative similar to other policing operations such as Operation Thor, commences next week. This will bring an added focus to high-risk hotspots and repeat offenders who reoffend. In addition, there will be a focus on those who enter the Justice system, including Community Service and young offenders. The Minister for Justice will be looking to develop a multiannual plan for Dublin to underpin public order and safety in our city.

The Garda Community Engagement Bureau has been in touch with many representative groups of diverse and minority communities to offer their support. The Garda National Diversity Unit within the Community Engagement Bureau have also said that they are happy to talk to companies to provide support and reassurance to staff, groups or individuals as needed. This unit can be contacted by emailing diversity@garda.ie.

As always, Dublin Chamber’s policy team would love to hear any insights you may have on reading this update, urging you to get in touch to collaboratively share experiences on the events that unfolded. You can contact the Chamber at policy@dublinchamber.ie.