Updated 10.02 pm
A PROTEST was held this evening at a south Dublin garda station after a TD and a councillor were among about a dozen people arrested at a water meter protest.
Joan Collins TD and Cllr Pat Dunne were among those who were arrested at the protest on Dublin’s Parnell Road this morning.
Gardaí have confirmed that a number of people were arrested at this morning’s protest on public order offences at about 9am but have all since been released.
In a statement released after her release, Collins said that she was “simply standing on the footpath”:
I was arrested by a Garda sergeant this morning while attending a peaceful anti-water meter protest. I was released in the last few minutes and am now back at the protest. The charge against me and other protesters was that I was in contravention of the Public Order Act. I was simply standing on a public footpath. My United Left colleague, Cllr Pat Dunne was also arrested together with 14 other residents. He has also been released. Our rightful fight against Water Charges will continue
A protest was then organised for Sundrive Garda Station this evening 5pm with dozens of protesters chanting and gardaí intervening in the demonstration.
A video posted on the Water Meter Alert Facebook page also showed protesters entering the station chanting ‘Shame, shame, shame on you’.
Cllr Tina McVeigh was present at this morning’s protest where the arrests took place and said they were protesting the installation of water meters.
More protesters were then arrested in the early afternoon according to McVeigh.
McVeigh spoke to TheJournal.ie from the scene of the protest Parnell Road along Dublin’s Grand Canal and confirmed that Collins has now returned to the scene.
McVeigh claimed that they gardaí were “heavy handed” in their policing of the protest and says that she herself was pushed.
She said that their behaviour was dangerous on what it is a busy south inner city roadway.
“Gardaí should be protecting the safety of the community, not the interests of Irish water,” she said.
The D.8 & D.12 Say No To Water Facebook page has published videos of protesters being removed from the road.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie this afternoon, Collins’s colleague Richard Boyd Barrett TD said that her arrest is “outrageous”.
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