DUBLIN SHOULD GET a dedicated Public Order Unit of An Garda Síochána to combat crime, according to Fianna Fáil.

The proposal was one of several put forward by the opposition party in their election plan for Dublin, ‘A Vibrant Capital’.

The document also proposes “substantially reduced or eliminated” parking fees on certain evenings, an underground DART, improving the water quality in the River Liffey, and the pedestrianisation of certain areas in Dublin including Merrion Square and Molesworth Street.

Speaking at the launch, party leader Micheál Martin admitted that Fianna Fáil are “starting well behind the others” in May’s elections but said the process would “begin the recovery of the party”.

“This is an election where the excuse of blaming others is of no use to Fine Gael and Labour … it’s 24 years since Fianna Fáil held a majority on any of the councils in Dublin,” Martin stated.

He said that Mary Fitzpatrick, the party’s European candidate in Dublin, “represents much of what is new about the party in the capital”. He denied that his leadership would be at stake if she failed to win a seat.

We’re going to give it one hell of a fight … The membership is up, the party is in a healthier state that we have been in Dublin for a long time.

Fitzpatrick said that crime in the city needed to be addressed immeditately. “It damages business, it damages Dublin as a tourist destination and it damages Dublin as a place people want to live.”

She added that there was a “sophisticated international element to the crime we see on our streets” and said that guards should be given the resources they need to tackle it.

Government policies

The MEP candidate went on to descirbe Irish Water as a “super quango”.

She noted that 99 per cent of the water available in Dublin was used every day and said water charges were not being intreoduced as a “conservative meaure” as claimed by the government.

It’s just another tax. A tax for a service that hasn’t been improved.

Martin said the implementation of the Local Property Tax had caused “immense anger and damage” as it had “no linkage with ability to pay”.

He said that all Fianna Fáil council members would vote to reduce the tax by 15 per cent when afforded this chance in September.

He also criticised the government’s plan to provide GP care for under 6s, saying it was “not credible” to implement while elderly and sick people continued to lose their medical cards.

People are very angry about the health situation and medical cards in particular.

Martin said that the party’s candidate for the Dublin West by-election would be chosen at a selection convention next week.

Read: ‘Let him give me his number one, that’ll be fine’: Mary Fitzpatrick on Bertie and FF’s recovery

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