Dublin politician slams holligans who drove car into Halloween bonfire

A Dublin politician has slammed hooligans who drove a car into a bonfire on Halloween night as “having complete disregard for the local community”.

A night of chaos ensued on Sunday after a number of fires were reported across the capital.

One shocking incident saw a car being driven straight into a raging bonfire at a housing estate near Liffey Valley.

There were no injuries reported but Cllr Alan Hayes said the event could have ended a lot differently had it not been for the rainy weather that night.

The politician was of the opinion that the incident showed a complete disregard for the local community and whoever are those who do that kind of hooliganism are showing absolute disregard for their neighbors and children who gather around those events.

“I think the night that it was with the weather certainly reduce the number of people that are out and about. Had it been a fine evening with less rain, the outcome could have been extremely different,” he said.

The Independent Councillor for Palmerstown-Fonthill said Dublin City Council needs to take a more proactive role in providing community events around Halloween time.

He added: “For example, organising bonfires or firework events to take place would reduce the anti-social element like what was displayed last night.”

He also said that the lack of manpower in the lead up to Halloween resulted in a number of stockpiles not being collected by the local authority.

“The council had an initiative to try and encourage the public to report where stockpiling was taking place.

“The public engaged with that and yet there were still several areas for example around Palmerstown, North Clondalkin, and Lucan where stockpiles of bonfire material was not collected.

“Not because the council staff in the depots didn’t want to get it and weren’t willing. To get it but simply because there wasn’t enough hours in the day and there wasn’t enough manpower.

“In the approach to Halloween, we need more people employed, just like we do in the summer. We need seasonal staff and contractors employed to double the effort and remove the stockpiling of bonfires.”

Over 133 incidents of Halloween-related fires were reported by the Dublin Fire Brigade last night.

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