{"id":145257,"date":"2025-11-17T21:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T21:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/145257\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T21:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T21:54:10","slug":"call-for-zero-tolerance-approach-after-latest-childrens-play-facility-arson-attack-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/145257\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for \u2018zero tolerance\u2019 approach after latest children\u2019s play facility arson attack \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A north Dublin<\/a> playground destroyed by arson at the weekend may not reopen before Christmas, Dublin City Council<\/a>\u2019s management has said.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed<\/a> and firefighters<\/a> attended the playground at Oscar Traynor Park in Coolock on Sunday night. The surface of the facility was badly scorched and requires replacement, while a slide was damaged beyond repair.<\/p>\n

Local councillors on Monday called for a \u201czero tolerance\u201d approach following a spate of attacks on children\u2019s play facilities in the city in recent months. <\/p>\n

Council manager for the area, Bruce Phillips, said the playground would have to remain closed until a new surface could be installed. However, the slide may not be replaced for another \u201cfour to six months\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the second or third time this [playground] has been burnt, but it\u2019s a lot worse this time,\u201d he said. \u201cHopefully we may get the playground opened before Christmas,\u201d but he said \u201cthat will depend on how bad it is\u201d.<\/p>\n

While the council would do its best to restore access to the space, \u201cit can take months, four to six months, for this type of equipment to be ordered\u201d he said. \u201cIf they do it to another piece, that piece of equipment will take another four to six months … Our hope is someone doesn\u2019t go burning another piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been several arson attacks on playgrounds<\/a> and other council provided facilities in the city in recent months. <\/p>\n

Last month, newly installed toilets in St Anne\u2019s Park in Raheny, north Dublin were destroyed by fire<\/a> and a playground in the north inner city was damaged in an arson attack<\/a> over the Halloween weekend. The previous month there were arson attacks at playgrounds in Ringsend and Lucan.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe vandalised and burned toilet facilities in St Annes Park, Clontarf. Photograph: Paul Scott <\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il councillor Daryl Barron said a \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy was required \u201cwhen we are spending taxpayers money on facilities like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arson was \u201cnot to be tolerated. We need to be very forceful on how our approach is, we need to give both barrels when it comes to arson\u201d.<\/p>\n

Green Party councillor Donna Cooney said the costs of the attacks were now probably running into millions of euro. \u201cWe need to think about what is happening and why this has become a trend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Independent councillor John Lyons suggested dashcam or doorbell camera footage could be used to identify the culprits and that a \u201crestorative justice\u201d process could be employed. \u201cThere needs to be some kind of consequence,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s so reckless, so mindless from where I\u2019m sitting.\u201d <\/p>\n

Those perpetrating the crime had \u201cno fear of consequences\u201d Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s M\u00edche\u00e1l Mac Donncha said. \u201cIn the age in which we are living you have to ask is this being done for an online thrill and [to encourage] copycat attacks?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A north Dublin playground destroyed by arson at the weekend may not reopen before Christmas, Dublin City Council\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,615,13288,34724,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-145257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-dublin","10":"tag-dublin-city-council","11":"tag-dublin-fire-brigade","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}