We cannot ‘cede the streets’ to criminality by moving major events away from O’Connell Street and the north inner city, Shane Coleman has warned.
The Newstalk Breakfast presenter this morning hit out at commentators who label the north inner city a ‘no go area’ – pointing out that tens of thousand of people go there every day.
He said there are problems with drugs and crime in the city – but it is essential that we tackle them rather than turning our backs on the city centre.
He was speaking after Dublin Central TD Gary Gannon said events like week’s Team Ireland homecoming event should not be held on O’Connell Street again without ‘serious thought’ beforehand.
“It's over three months since the Taoiseach announced a Dublin City Centre task force to improve the safety of our main thoroughfares and nothing has happened in that regard,” he said.
“Ordinary citizens are saying they no longer go into Dublin city centre or have cut down on the number of occasions when they take a risk by going into town at night.”
Deputy Gannon made the comments after a man was injured in an assault near the homecoming on Monday.
Fans waiting in O Connell Street for Team Ireland to arrive, 12/08/2024. Image: Leon Farrell/RollingNewsShane said he disagrees with the Social Democrat politician.
“I agree with a lot of what he has said about Dublin City Centre and about the need for more to be done, but I don't agree with him about saying we shouldn't have events or we should reconsider having events like this in the city centre,” he said.
“The one thing we cannot do is, we cannot cede the streets to those who are intent on doing violence and doing wrong and drug dealing and so on.
“We can't have no-go areas and we can't be closing down lanes.
“Passive security is really important. We need people; we need regular, decent, ordinary citizens coming into the city centre.”
Social Democrat TD Gary Gannon on the plinth outside Leinster House this afternoon. Image: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNewsHe labelled the recent criticism of the decision to place The Portal’ in the north inner city ‘ridiculous’, insisting, “You can't have everything in the south inner city.”
“The whole idea is you bring people into the city and that brings passive security.
“I think the wrong thing to do is, is to say, ‘Oh, it's no-go area’ and let's not bring people in here – that definitely is not the solution.”
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'No-go area'
Shane rejected fellow presenter Jonathan Healy’s suggestion that the area has become no-go in recent times.
“It's not becoming a no-go area,” he said. “Let’s be careful about this.
“I am there every day of the week – It is not a no-go area.
“I'm not suggesting there aren't problems – there are.
“I've written about the low-level anti-social activity and the drug dealing but using language like ‘no-go area’ is wrong and you know what? Tens of thousands of people go there every day.”
Safety
Asked how many of those currently feel safe in the city Shane said: “I think a lot of the people who talk about not feeling safe going into O'Connell Street probably are never on O'Connell Street.”
“I think a lot of them feel safe,” he said.
“Of course there are problems, there absolutely are, and we need a better intervention from the Government – we need things to happen.
“I'm a big believer in the broken window theory.
“If there's one broken window, it leads to a knock-on effect. It must be tackled but let's not cede the streets.
“Let's not start talking about no-go areas, because that actually isn't the case. That's an exaggeration of the problem, and that doesn't actually help solve the problems.”
