It is great to have the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy in the Chamber again today. It follows on from the conversation that was initiated by my colleague, Deputy Hearne, earlier. The Ceann Comhairle was not in the Chair herself but there was quite a furore in the Chamber earlier. My colleague was speaking on behalf of a constituent of his, Amanda Uwase, who was in the Gallery at the time. Over Christmas, Amanda's family experienced an absolutely terrifying ordeal very few of us could even comprehend, when their home was targeted in an arson attack. The Garda is investigating so I will not speak to the specifics of the incident, more to the follow-up. Deputy Hearne was making the point that there are perhaps differences in how some communities are being policed. The community which Amanda came from is quite disadvantaged. That resulted in some interruptions, and understandably so. It is a charge that is highly emotive. One may consider it to be fair or unfair and that is absolutely fine. I went for a cup of coffee with Amanda after the session. She was speaking to the horror of seeing her house targeted, having to go back inside a burning home to rescue two of her siblings and watch another of her siblings jump from a second-storey window through which she, too, had to leave the premises, and then wait for the fire brigade to come and get her mother from the burning building. It was terrifying. In the weeks that have passed, Amanda's family has not been allocated a Garda liaison officer yet. I find that extraordinary. They have been placed in an accommodation that is not only too small but also minutes away from the home that was targeted. They are absolutely terrified. The council they are dealing with has not been overly responsive. Amanda today, with a bandage still on her arm, had to do another interview with the media. She is so frustrated by the lack of engagement from the State with her family's experience that she has had to park her trauma and muster the courage to speak to RTÉ earlier in the week and another media outlet today. That does mean something. I cannot imagine another community being targeted and not receiving comprehensive engagement from the State. There was an horrendous incident in Edenderry at the start of December where a child was murdered in an arson attack, again, a four-year-old and a 60-year-old caregiver who was his great aunt. I expected to come into the Dáil that week to have statements and to hear it described as a line that we shall not cross again, and that we must really get to grips with these incidents.

Sentiment score: -0.19

I will speak more broadly. I will not even refer to the fact that a woman in Clondalkin opened her door to be smeared with petrol and set on fire also. There have been 2,500 incidents of drug-related intimidation since 2001. Of these, over 150 were arson attacks linked to drug-related intimidation. Arson attacks connected to drug crime rose sharply, from just 13 in 2022 to about 50 last year. Despite more arrests, only 4% of cases have led to prosecutions. Recorded incidence of drug-related intimidation overall has increased by roughly 38% since 2001. It is fair to say we are reaching extraordinary levels of intimidation targeted at particular communities. It is not just urban communities. I appreciate that there has been a significant increase in smaller, rural environments. I have no clue as to what the response is from the State. I know we have one small initiative that is badly funded and poorly advertised, yet we have what can only be described as pandemic levels of intimidation being experienced by communities. There have been no statements on the matter, no major interventions, nobody tweeting from their accounts, just silence. I would love to hear what the Minister of State and his Department are doing about this issue.

Sentiment score: -0.15

I went back and read Deputy Hearne's contribution as the Minister of State was speaking. His contribution was targeted at the Department of justice and the Minister responsible. We do not doubt for a second the work of the Garda, given the supports available to it. It is not the Garda itself that leaves police stations understaffed or undermanned. That is the responsibility of those who allocate budgets, which is the Government. I find it quite insulting to the Garda that because we have an exchange in the Chamber to do with budgetary allocations and absolute priorities, the Minister of State says we are going after the Garda. Let me be clear: we are going after his Department - the Department of justice. It was not the Garda, for example, that failed to facilitate a parliamentary discussion on drug-related intimidation, which we have been asking for since early December. It was the Government and Chief Whip, who was present today, that did not allow those discussions. Please do not conflate the two. Gardaí do a difficult job in difficult circumstances. It is the absence of priority from the Government that enables a scenario in which some communities are absolutely not policed as well as others. That is also something the Minister has written into the record of this House, when he said that there are parts of Dublin that are not as safe as other parts. Which parts was he referring to exactly? Probably not his constituency in Dublin 4. It is definitely the more marginalised communities that are left to deal with these incidents. It is also hard to take the Government seriously when it tells me that it is tackling drug-related and gang-related intimidation and violence when we see that only 4% of cases have led to prosecutions. That is only 4% of cases out of 2,500 incidents since 2021. I would like to work with the Department on prioritising the issue of drug-related intimidation. It is very clearly costing lives and destroying communities. The DRIVE programme is a good start but it does not have the right level of funding allocation. People do not know too much about it and it is not endemic in the heart of the communities that are most impacted by the violence we are discussing.

Sentiment score: -0.06