The Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has made public the Garda Commissioner's reports to him on last Saturday's violence in Dublin, in an attempt to show the Garda response was reasonable and based on a thought-out strategy.
Both the commissioner in his initial reports, and Mr McDowell in a Dáil speech yesterday, held back from accusing dissident republicans of orchestrating the rioting which resulted in 14 injuries, 42 arrests and extensive damage to some city centre business premises.
A Garda investigation into the events will examine this question and report to the Minister later.
Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy has told Mr McDowell that the Garda did not expect significant violence and had therefore planned for a relatively low-key policing operation. This was not a "seat of the pants exercise", Mr McDowell said, but was a comprehensive and thought out policing operation, based on Garda intelligence.
The publication of a detailed account of the commissioner's preliminary reports is designed to answer criticisms from some Opposition spokesmen that the Garda got it wrong, and had not planned properly for the mayhem which engulfed the city and prevented the planned march commemorating victims of IRA violence from going down O'Connell Street.
The synopsis of the initial Garda reports was outlined to the Cabinet yesterday. In a Dáil debate last night on the rioting, Mr McDowell rejected Opposition claims that the Garda was at fault for not anticipating the violence. He said there was no carelessness on the part of the Garda, nor were they hampered by a lack of resources.
While Mr McDowell did not accuse anyone of directly organising the violence, he ascribed indirect responsibility for it to some "so-called republicans". He said that some "so-called republicans who deny the wishes of the Irish people for a lasting settlement in Northern Ireland . . . provide the fuel that helped to ignite naked sectarianism on the streets of Dublin for the first time in a long time." He said Mr Conroy would report to him once the full investigation was complete.
He said there was no lack of resources available to the Garda on Saturday. "The Garda Síochána had the resources of the whole force available, but made a well thought through decision that this was to be a low-key demonstration, that it was not to be surrounded by a ring of steel." This approach was based on the professional judgment of the Garda.
He acknowledged that "it would have been a good idea" to have gardaí stationed at the piles of building materials on O'Connell Street which provided the majority of missiles that were hurled at gardaí. He said gardaí had met Dublin City Council and the contractors involved six times to discuss the securing of this material. He acknowledged that lessons would have to be learned, but said "hindsight is a wonderful thing".