The events of last Saturday in the city of Dublin were unprecedented. The consequences could not have been foreseen and the extent of those consequences would have been difficult to anticipate. I condemn, in the strongest possible fashion, the antics of the thugs, hooligans and neo-nationalists who disrupted life in the city on a normal Saturday. They terrorised citizens and put the lives of members of the Garda Síochána at risk. The violence on Saturday was the action of vicious thugs. It was premeditated and was well planned. It was an attack not only on the police force, but on free speech, on democracy, on society and on the citizens of Dublin.

It was not an orchestrated attack by football hooligans alone. They would not be in a position to organise it on such a scale. There is now significant evidence available that this riot was premeditated, was well planned in advance and that information to this effect was creeping into the public domain. I have spoken to witnesses who saw a van with a number of men who were arrested near Fleet Street with baseball bats and hurleys. There have been numerous reports of people in possession of billiard balls, golf balls, lump hammers and petrol bombs. Respected journalists have written about people with mobile telephones who directed incidents and issued instructions within this riot. There have been reports of boxes of glass bottles stashed on streets near O'Connell Street for use during this riot.

This level of premeditation is in stark contrast to the low key approach the Government and senior Garda management appear to have adopted in respect of this march, which was a freedom of speech category march. The result was that people who went about their business on Saturday afternoon in the city were simply terrorised. Pictures akin to those from Beirut, Belfast or Baghdad flashed around the world and the front-line gardaí, in their ordinary uniforms, were obliged to face down those thugs and hoodlums. They were left unprotected and were clearly in danger of losing their lives. This is not good enough. Their bravery and courage, while being obliged to stand out and while being left out in such a situation must be commended by everyone in this House. Those innocent people and all the gardaí involved deserve a full explanation as to how these series of provocative and aggressive incidents occurred. Does the Taoiseach accept that the action and the decision of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and senior Garda management, in adopting a low key approach to this unprecedented loyalist march on O'Connell Street was flawed? Does the Taoiseach accept there was a level of complacency in assuming that the peace process was accepted by everyone within this State? Obviously, criminality and lawlessness among some in the so-called republican movement have not disappeared for good. Why was only one riot squad, instead of three or four in place? Why did it take so long to deploy the lone Garda helicopter? How can Members be sure this sort of flawed decision making will not happen again?

As I said outside the House, I wholeheartedly condemn the disgraceful scenes of naked violence visited on the people of Dublin and on the Garda by a very unrepresentative minority last Saturday. It is already clear this was an attempt by a small sectarian minority to deny others the right to express their views freely and in a peaceful manner. Let us be clear, these were the motivations of a group of very vicious people who went out on a Saturday morning, not to watch a football match or do their shopping in town but with serious intent.

I salute the bravery of the men and women of the Garda Síochána. The gardaí were sorely provoked on Saturday and responded professionally to outrageous attacks upon them motivated by unreasoning hatred and malice towards the lawful authority of our democracy.

Later the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will deal comprehensively with all the matters surrounding the violent events. I will confine myself to a few brief comments. The Garda had extensive consultations over the past two months plus with the Northern Ireland based organisation Families Acting for Innocent Relatives, FAIR, who wished to march to highlight the feelings of victims of IRA violence. They contacted the Garda prior to Christmas regarding their intention. When the intentions of FAIR became known a number of dissident republican organisations, particularly Republican Sinn Féin, called for a counter demonstration. All the credible intelligence information available to the Garda indicated that any counter protests on the day would be small and peaceful.

The Garda held a series of meetings with representatives of FAIR as to the policing of the parade and, arising from those discussions and taking account of the intelligence assessment that the Garda make into all marches and protests, which seem to occur in O'Connell Street every week, a comprehensive policing plan was put in place by the Garda. This involved close liaison with Dublin City Council.

The purpose of that plan was to permit the parade to go ahead and allow the police to counter any demonstration. The objective was to employ a proportionate police presence that would ensure public safety, and not to over react with too large a force, and at the same time not to create too much tension. As it happened, approximately 350 people wanted to march. There were approximately 350 gardaí, including gardaí on stand-by. They were quickly able to call on approximately another 150. While they thought they were dealing with a crowd of between 50 and 70, it turned out to be several hundred when they appeared out of pubs and lanes at the back of both sides of O'Connell Street.

Unfortunately, that could not be foreseen. It was, in fact, thuggish behaviour by a relatively small number of persons, some of whom had been drinking in the immediate environs of O'Connell Street. These people engaged in an orgy of violence against gardaí and property, against journalists and against anybody who got in their way. These were not the only targets. There was a very sinister development, with blatant attacks on clearly identifiable members of the media and, as reported today, on shopkeepers and others in the general area of town in the afternoon as well.

I emphasise that while the Garda was aware of the proposed protest by dissident republican groups, there was no specific information or intelligence available to it to suggest that violence on the scale witnessed was planned. That was a complete surprise. On the day a decision was taken not to let the parade as planned proceed but to allow a demonstration outside of this House, which did take place.

The Garda investigation into the violence, vandalism and looting is continuing. A preliminary report was presented to Cabinet — the Minister will give that later — and the more detailed report will be compiled over the immediate period as the Garda conduct an assessment by all of those people involved.

A decision was made on how to handle the march. It involved a very large number of gardaí. I am familiar with O'Connell Street marches. Normally, one or two dozen people parade. There have been large marches already this year. There have been marches and protests about different issues. There is no need to mention any of those; they are all known and were well made. Some of them were high profile and some of them were very low profile, but 350 gardaí is a large number for these marches.

As I said previously, this was unprecedented. It had not happened before, therefore the consequences were difficult to anticipate. However, it now appears clearly evident that there was a failure to assess properly, a failure to plan properly, a failure to anticipate properly and a failure to be ready for the worst. Nobody wants a perception of our city that on a march, which has been approved, there must be a ring of steel down O'Connell Street but as this was the consequence of a political parade that had never happened before in this country, it should have been perfectly obvious that at least resources and facilities should have been made available and ready quickly to deal with unforeseen or unanticipated consequences. It is in that failure that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, must accept political responsibility for this, as the person in charge of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. In that failure to anticipate, to plan and to provide resources, the Minister has failed in his duty as head of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

The Taoiseach, in his radio interview on Saturday, stated that the word was out on Friday in his constituency that something like this was going to happen. We had signals from others that this was going to happen as well. On Friday the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, in his speech in Waterford, gave a political lecture about the Progressive Democrats being meat in a sandwich. On Saturday, because of the failure to plan properly for this and to be ready for the worst, the front-line gardaí in ordinary uniforms facing bricks, billiard balls, stones and petrol bombs were the meat in the sandwich between democracy and anarchy. Political responsibility for that failure must rest with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

When Ireland held the EU Presidency last year, 5,000 gardaí and Army were deployed. It was a ring of steel. While I agree with the Taoiseach that one does not want pictures of the main street of the capital city every day ringed with Army and Garda, as this never happened before there should have been an anticipation that the worst might happen and that the resources to deal with it would have been readily available. In that sense, does the Taoiseach agree that the handling of this, between senior management and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, was flawed? Does he accept that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform must accept political responsibility as the head of his Department for this debacle, which could have turned into a conflagration on O'Connell Street in less than ten minutes? Those thugs, hooligans and neo-Nationalists of whatever so-called republican hue——

Deputy Kenny's time has concluded.

——did down this country and its citizens, and exposed the Garda, our only protectors between anarchy and democracy, to having their lives put on the line on the main street of the capital last Saturday. It is just not good enough and I hope there are lessons learned for the future.

There are always lessons learned from everything. The kind of thuggery we saw on Saturday last, and the gathering of what probably were different groups, did us harm and shamed the city and the country. There is no doubt about that.

With every march the Garda, when it receives a plan, must look at all the aspects to it and the Minister will point out later the extent to which it did that. The Garda certainly did not take anything lightly. It undertook considerable planning and had many senior people involved. There was an enormous amount of meetings, including with the city council. They were concerned about the site on O'Connell Street. They had six meetings about that issue alone. They had a large number of people in the area. If the Garda and State wanted to have the march and suspected there could be trouble to the extent that occurred, I am sure the march could have taken place because 350 people were available to guard.

In fairness to the organisation involved — Families Acting for Innocent Relatives, which numbers 350 members — the Garda put a huge number of conditions on the members about what they could do, especially regarding anything that might be seen to be provocative. They complied with the conditions and went along with every arrangement. The Garda had a number of meetings with FAIR representatives last week in Dublin and they went through all this.

The Garda checked its intelligence about what was going on. People were loosely talking about a march on the weekend and whether there would be a problem. Following Saturday's events, it became clear texts had been sent and people had been saying there could be trouble. The Garda authorities were in the best position to arrive at a view. They thought there would be a peaceful protest by a small number of people but that number swelled to hundreds. They did not think they would have to deal with hundreds of people, young, old and middle aged, ripping up pavements, boards, public lighting and everything they could get their hands on and unleashing them on top of gardaí, journalists and everybody else who got in the way. It was not seen as that. Who will ever know why a group went to so much trouble to do that against a small number of people?

I am well used to watching demonstrations in my constituency. On the day, three superintendents, ten inspectors, 32 sergeants and more than 300 gardaí and uniformed public order personnel were on duty in the background. The Garda mounted, air support and dog units were deployed while 58 detectives were mixing with the crowd. That is not a normal Saturday afternoon in my constituency. A total of 150 additional gardaí were deployed quickly. Regularly, in another part of my constituency, 80,000 people converge and we would not get a force half that size. On Saturday 350 people were being protected against 70.

Unfortunately, hooligans are hooligans and they did damage. It was organised in some way. We must await the full investigation but the proof it was organised is that people do not move from the Parnell monument to the far side of town in a matter of minutes unless somebody is calling the shots and orders. A small group managed to motivate other misguided hoodlums to participate in their entertainment. Whatever else, my knowledge of inner city life is that 600 or 700 people do not turn up to watch Hearts, a Scottish team, play at 11 in the morning. That was not their motivation.