MINISTER FOR JUSTICE Helen McEntee has said she will not resign following the riots last night in Dublin City Centre.

McEntee was speaking to reporters at Government Buildings after Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald called for her to resign.

Asked if she had considered her position or offered to resign, Ms McEntee said:

“I have not and I will not.

“I am absolutely committed to my work in making sure that I support the gardaí and the commissioner in responding to these mindless thugs.”

The Minister was speaking following a night of serious unrest in Dublin City, during which gardaí were attacked, buses and a Luas tram set on fire, and shops looted.

The riots began following a knife attack on a number of people including small children in Dublin city yesterday afternoon.

Thirty-four people were arrested as a result of last night’s riots, with the majority appearing in court today.

McEntee said “there will absolutely be further arrests”. She said gardaí were “trawling through” social media and CCTV footage.

Responding to criticism that gardaí were overwhelmed yesterday, McEntee said the force had all the resources necessary to keep people safe in Dublin over the weekend.

“What happened yesterday evening following this awful, tragic act was nothing but thuggery,” she said.

“This was a group of individuals who used this horrendous event as an opportunity to wreak havoc in our city, to sew division in our city, they will be responded to with force and gardaí responded in the most appropriate way.

They have restored order to this city will continue to do so.

The minister said she met with the senior Garda officers today and that they “reassured me that every resource necessary to keep people safe in this city over the weekend is in place and will be in place as is needed and for as long as is needed.”

The minister also said that the response to the riots saw the largest ever deployment of gardaí in a public order situation.

“Garda have responded in an excellent way,”. she said

“Yesterday, what we saw in a very short space of time were a number of people who wanted to be violent, who wanted to wreak havoc.

“But what we also saw were significant numbers of gardaí coming together. We had the largest number of gardaí in public order unit gear that has ever been deployed and this happened in a very short space of time.

“They managed to contain what was a very volatile situation into a very short area within our city centre.

The scenes were absolutely horrific, I don’t think anyone thought they would see those kind of scenes in our main thoroughfare.