We want to express our solidarity with the children and care worker viciously attacked in Parnell Square yesterday afternoon. Our thoughts are with them and their families at this traumatic time and we sincerely hope they all recover from this awful event. We also express our solidarity with the school concerned and all its staff, pupils and families.
General Secretary Owen Reidy said 'We condemn in the strongest terms the unacceptable and outrageous thuggery witnessed on the streets of our capital city last night. We pay tribute to our wonderful Garda, firefighters, ambulance personnel, local authority workers and our transport workers in how they have responded. They are an example of public service. No worker should be in harm's way when called to work and last night they clearly were.
We condemn the looting and vandalism and are conscious that this behaviour from violent thugs has the potential to damage business and leave some workers in the retail and hospitality sectors in the city centre laid off or possibly losing their livelihoods. This is unacceptable. We are calling on workers working in the city centre on Monday 27th November at 1 pm to assemble at the GPO to show their solidarity with all the people of the capital and to clearly denounce this violence and riotous behaviour in a solemn and respectful way.
We would encourage and ask the employers in the city centre to facilitate their employees demonstrating this act of solidarity during their lunch break where possible.
The scenes of violence in our capital were displayed right throughout the world and has done significant damage. We condemn the far right and racist-infused mindless and wanton violence and must say that this does not represent us as workers or as a country'.