Chronic underfunding of policing and safety initiatives in Ballymun has exposed children to the horrors of the drug trade, according to Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne.
Deputy Hearne, who represents the Ballymun area, said:
“Yesterday’s incident in Ballymun happened as a result of safety and drug-related intimidation being left unchallenged in the community by successive governments spanning decades.
“There is an inadequate level of community policing in the area, which fails to prevent open drug dealing outside of schools, exposing children to the harms of the ongoing local feud.
“I’ve raised this matter a number of times in the Dáil, with Dublin City Council, in community meetings and with Gardaí, who are trying their best with the limited resources they have been allocated. All parties agree that safety initiatives in the area, from policing to youth diversion, are chronically underfunded.
“It is astonishing that the Dublin North Metropolitan region has a 35% lower number of Gardaí by population than the city’s average, despite the high level of gang-related crime in the area. High crime and low investment has resulted in the inevitable today, and this is not what Ballymun deserves.
“The region has 212 Gardaí per 100,000 people, compared to the entire Dublin Metropolitan region’s average of 286 per 100,000.
“The children of Ballymun have as much a right to safety as anyone in Ireland, and should be provided for in accordance with the area’s level of need.
“I’ve been directly contacted by families affected by the local gang feud, parents and children who are affected in different ways by the scourge of the drug trade and its ongoing intimidation. They feel they have been forgotten about.
“I’m calling on Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan to address the chronic underfunding of policing and safety initiatives in Ballymun to ensure yesterday’s events are no longer an inevitability.”
April 29th, 2026