PROTESTS IN COOLOCK against the use of accommodation for people seeking asylum have a “criminal element embedded” within them, a policing board meeting heard this afternoon.

Sinn Féin councillor Daithí Doolan told Dublin City Council’s Joint Policing Committee today that he was aware of one individual who has been acting as an “ambassador” for the protest who is a “convicted drug dealer” and who previously “boasted of flooding Ireland with drugs”.

He added that the same individual has a “political pedigree” through past involvement with the extremist British National Party (BNP).

Protests have been taking place in recent days against the use of the former Crown Paint factory in the north Dublin neighbourhood as accommodation for asylum seekers. It is expected that up to 500 International Protection (IP) applicants will be housed there.

Doolan, a councillor for the Ballyfermot-Drimnagh area, told the meeting earlier today that he has serious reservations about some people involved in the protests, describing them as “far-right” and “anti-immigrant”.

Doolan said the latest Coolock protest last night was “absolutely horrific for people”, describing how one bus driver had to be guided through a housing estate to bring people to their destination.

“I want to see what’s the strategy from the gardaí to deal with this. Is there a strategy? What is it? Are you being supported by the department?,” he asked.

Let’s not be dewy eyed and call them concerned citizens.

Responding to Doolan, Assistant Garda Commissioner Angela Willis said that protests sometimes see demonstrators “express opinions that may not be popular, but it won’t breach that criminal threshold” needed to instigate a Garda response.

“So people encouraging other people’s to come and protest at something that they might see as a legitimate concerns to that community, we become the facilitators if you like,” Willis added.

“There is a a particular level of disruption we must tolerate.”

Despite this, Willis said investigations are underway into nine arson attacks in the Dublin area.

She said ten arrests have been made in relation to arson attacks in the capital, with nine people before the courts.

Gardaí have also acquired CCTV footage of one arson suspect and may use the RTÉ Crimecall programme to help draw information from the public, Willis added.

When contacted, the Department of Integration told The Journal that it was not possible to confirm the breakdown of “who will be accommodated” at the Coolock site.

“While demand for accommodation continues to outstrip supply, the Department is working to ensure that families and children are accommodated,” it said.

Doolan said he understood that a that a “more hands-off approach” was used to avoid greater violence, but said the “level of violence we have seen over the last 18 months is unacceptable”.

“This is a throwback to the days in Europe in the ’30s when criminal elements to over political direction of organisations and it lead to violence,” he continued.

Additional reporting by Órla Ryan.