Irish government minister accuses Sinn Fein of having a 'murky relationship' with law and order

Irish Minister of State for public health and wellbeing Hildegarde Naughton also said a Sinn Fein motion of no-confidence in Justice Minister Helen McEntee was a "political stunt" and added that the Government was focused on assisting the Garda so that violent scenes which erupted in Dublin recently are never repeated.

Tens of millions of euro worth of damage was caused to public infrastructure after disorder in the Irish capital that saw buses, trams and Garda cars on O'Connell Street set on fire and shops on looted.

The rioting followed a knife attack near a school in which three children and a care assistant were injured.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has said a lack of Garda members and government inaction had resulted in people feeling less safe in the city, as well as in other parts of the country.

Last week, DUP MLA Diane Forsythe said: “There is an obvious attempt by Sinn Fein to cynically exploit the situation in Dublin to present themselves as a party of law and order yet they have failed to the condemn the systematic murder of police and Garda officers for decades.”

Former senior PSNI officer Jon Burrows has described Sinn Féin’s credentials “as the party for law and order” as “very questionable indeed”.

Ms McDonald announced the motion of no-confidence in Ms McEntee, to be debated in the Dail on Tuesday, claiming there needed to be accountability for the "catastrophic failure" to keep people safe.

However, Fine Gael minister Ms Naughton told RTE there was "absolute confidence" in the Government in Ms McEntee.

She said that Sinn Fein had a "murky relationship" with law and order.

She added: "Fine Gael has no problem debating issues of law and order with Sinn Fein."

"What Minister McEntee is focused on and what government is focused on is addressing those issues and making sure that the gardai are supported, these are the guardians of our state and we need to make sure they are ready for events like this in the future.

"That is our focus, not political stunts."

Ms Naughton added: "What Sinn Fein are doing is politicising a very serious event that happened in our capital city last Thursday week. What we all should be doing is supporting An Garda Siochana, not turning this into a political stunt”.

Sinn Fein TD Martin Kenny defended the posting online by Mrs McDonald of a photo depicting a person sitting on steps that she claimed was near the scene of the knife attack.

He said: "The people in that area have for years had situations where they have had huge under-investment in policing, in social services, in community services and it has resulted in an area which is lawless, they never see a gard.

"After the vicious attack and the huge spotlight that was on it for a week, less than a week later it is back to this abnormal situation.

"The point that Mary Lou McDonald was making was we have to change, there has to be a step change in how this is looked after."