In the Irish Examiner this morning, Cormac O'Keeffe gave voice to what many of us working in the area already know. Throughout Dublin city, even youth workers are starting to feel scared as they go about their work, such are the levels of increased violence and intimidation. I find that extraordinary. What is more extraordinary is that the Minister's Government has, over the last two terms, initiated two separate task forces for Dublin city centre in different ways. One amounted to basically a couple of press releases and nothing more. The other completely misunderstood the community it was asked to serve. Has the Minister run out of ideas when it comes to tackling antisocial behaviour and crime in our communities?

No. I thank the Deputy for the question. Like him, I am a Deputy for Dublin city centre. It is a great city. I am concerned about a narrative that keeps stating that it is a dangerous place to go into.

Are they wrong?

There are tens of thousands of people walking around the streets of Dublin today as the Deputy and I will do later. They feel safe, and they are right to feel safe.

Deputy, please.

There are always going to be circumstances where there are criminal acts. It is a city and county that has 1.2 million people in it. As Minister for justice, I cannot come to the Deputy and say there will be no criminal activity in Dublin. It is a large international capital city. What we have to do as Deputies representing the city centre is be more positive about it. There are obviously aspects-----

I will tell the people-----

Deputy.

There are parts of Dublin city that can be unsafe, particularly for somebody who has been attacked, but predominantly it is a safe city. Look at the crime statistics; they are down. Look at the knife statistics; they are down. The Garda is doing a good job and the Deputy should get behind his city rather than denigrating it.