A LOBBY GROUP for Dublin city centre businesses has called for new measures to tackle anti-social behaviour and violence by some individuals in the capital.

Richard Guiney, chief executive of Dublin Town, suggested on RTÉ radio that curfews and “exclusions” should be considered, in the wake of a number of incidents of serious violence in Dublin city centre, and amid ongoing debate about whether the city is safe.

Guiney told The Journal new measures were needed to address the behaviour of “young people whose behaviour is persistently difficult”, and this is the group for whom he believes a curfew of 8pm or 9pm or a general ban from entering the core city centre area could be applied. 

He added that exclusions could also be applied in other areas where kids were “congregating and getting themselves into trouble”.

He said such anti-social behaviour order (Asbo) type measures could be used to address a “small cohort” whose behaviour is persistently “difficult and challenging”.

He said that while the vast majority of of kids who come through the juvenile liaison officer (JLO) system of the gardaí’s youth diversion programme don’t come to garda attention again, there is a minority who continue to offend.

Shoplifting

Guiney said members of Dublin Town are affected by kids stealing from shops and abusing staff. He said the problem of anti-social behaviour in the city centre has deteriorated since the pandemic, which hit some kids hard.

“The issue with teenagers being really problematic is definitely something that gets raised a lot across the city, both north side and south side, by members with us,” Guiney said.

Kids are coming in and, you know, not even hiding that they’re stealing stuff, being quite brazen and actually saying to staff ‘go on, call the guards, there’s nothing they can do, I’m whatever age’.”

Guiney said that “statistically” Dublin is a safe city, but “people don’t feel safe”. He said the underlying reasons for that needed to be addressed.

Asked whether he believed measures such as excluding some kids from the city centre could demonise young men from very deprived backgrounds, Guiney said: “No. JLOs work across the board – kids from middle-class backgrounds have been in the JLO system as well. It’s not the background of the person, it’s the behaviour.”