Minister for Justice says Limerick street party was "not acceptable"
THE Minister for Justice has said the events which unfolded in Limerick city last night are not acceptable and should not be happening.
Helen McEntee is one of a number of senior politicians who have criticised the behaviour of a large number of young people - many of them students - who attended a street party in the Castletroy area.
"I understand this is very difficult but we cannot see scenes like that happening again. It's very disappointing when people who live in that area but also for everybody else who has been trying so hard over the past year," she told Pat Kenny on Newstalk radio.
"We had quite a number of fixed charged penalty notices that were issued and you had a number of people arrested so the gardai are not taking this lightly - it's just not acceptable and it cannot happen," she added.
Minister McEntee added that incidents like the one which occurred last night could have an impact on the re-opening of the country from April 5 - at present the Limerick City East LEA has one of the highest incidence rates of Covid-19 in Ireland.
"There are meetings (of younger people) happening, it appears that a lot of smaller groups came together very quickly last night. It was broken up very quickly by the gardai but it simply cannot happen and I am very clear in saying that - it is not acceptable," she said adding that she has some sympathy for younger people.
"We have all been young once and I understand how extremely difficult this is for younger people - we are asking students to go to college and to stay in their room or asking them to go to college but not to socialise and not to engage with each other but we are in the midst still of a global pandemic. There are public health guidelines, there are regulations in place and they are there for a reason," she said.
The minister says she has had regular engagement with the Garda Commissioner about gatherings of young people and says a specific communications campaign, targeting young people, will be rolled out shortly.
"The message needs to be sent loud an clear. While it (Covid) might not impact younger people in the same way, you are helping to spread this you are bringing it back into communities and it absolutely detrimental," she said.