Increase in incidents of violence and intimidation

WHILE one councillor said the lack of a hate speech category in local anti-social behaviour statistics is because “it’s probably not needed”, another councillor said there is a “deep issue” with racism.

The discussion came about during a presentation of anti-social behaviour statistics in Tallaght from 2023, compiled by South Dublin County Council, at a Tallaght Area Committee meeting last week.

The report found that there was an increase in incidents of violence, intimidation and harassment that were reported to the council, jumping from 44 in 2022 up to 69 in 2023.

Neighbour disputes rose from four incidents in 2022 to 12 in 2023, while there were 36 incidents of squatters/illegal occupiers reported in 2022, compared to 50 last year.

A member of council management told councillors at the meeting that two full-time community safety officers are working in the area alongside three housing officers.

“So we’d hope with the increase, working closely with the guards, with an increased presence, that we’ll be in a better position to address things going forward,” said the manager.

Commenting on the statistics, Cllr Paddy Holohan (Ind) expressed a positive response to the fact that there is not a hate speech category accounted for in the statistics.

“Not that I’d like to see it here, but it’s said that in the country there’s a big problem about hate speech, and stuff like that,” said Cllr Holohan.

“But it’s great to see there is no category here for it, because it’s probably not needed.”

There is, however, a category for reported incidents of racism, which increased from two incidents in 2022 to four in 2023.

Cllr Kieran Mahon (Sol) pointed this out to Cllr Holohan, and voiced his concerns about how accurately hate speech incidents can be reflected in the council’s statistics.

“There is a category for racism reported to the council,” he said. “It’s gone up from two to four.

“I think a situation where we have groups of people standing outside buildings shouting, ‘Get them out’, ‘Send them home’, it’s not necessarily going to register with the council.

“Because, you know, somebody might not ring the council and report that.

“There’s a deep issue there, obviously in terms of racist attitudes that are developing in society.

“There’s a deep issue in terms of people with genuine concerns and questions around a lack of resources, but there’s definitely an issue with racist attitudes developing.

“No doubt about it, but we’re not going to capture that here.”

There were some reductions in categories including reports of vacant houses, dropping from 81 in 2022 to 78 in 2023, and there were 11 reports of pet/animal nuisance in 2022, and four last year.