Youth worker claims lack of services leads to anti-social behaviour after assault on garda

Michael Bolton

It's claimed services in west Dublin have been neglected for so long that it's leading to a rise in anti-social behaviour.

This follows an assault on garda in Ballyfermot on Monday after he was struck by a missile by a group of youths while on duty.

It's believed the officer was trying to help an elderly woman as there were a lot of scrambler bikes in the area for a funeral.

Gardaí said a number of patrol vehicles were also significantly damaged.

GRA president Brendan O'Connor said the gardaí who were attacked were just trying to do their job.

Services

Fiona Kearney from community organisation, FamiliBase, condemned the incident, and claimed more investment is needed in the community to combat the rise in anti-social behaviour.

"Very often you will hear of a young person involved in an incident, and you will know five years ago, or 10 years ago, you were advocating for service for that person.

"That doesn't condone behaviour, but we are just trying to give a context as to how sometimes these situations arise. The community needs investment that it has been promised for years and years."

"Nobody up here accepts that behaviour is okay, but what we are trying to say is how does a 15-year-old, or a 17-year-old, or a 19-year-old end up behaving like that.

"What happens early on, and very often we can give you case example, after case example where we have missed childre. Whether it be through child protection, through education or mental health services."

Local councillor for the area Hazel De Nortúin has said they need to figure out why some young people are being hostile to gardai.

"There is a problem right across the sector at the moment, about young people engaging in criminal activity, or anti-social activity if we are not engaged on the ground

"Like I said this is nothing new. It's been springing up in different areas, but we need to figure out how we are going to tackle it in a different way, because I think if we are tackling it at the end stage, we aren't actually addressing it."