Michael Healy-Rae released a heartfelt message of sympathy for all those involved in the Manchester Islamic terrorist attack. He also gave a stark warning about Ireland.
The Kerry TD said:
“I wish to express my deepest sympathies with the families and those who have been affected by the awful attack carried out in Manchester last night leaving 22 innocent people dead and over 59 people seriously injured.
This was a cold calculated attack on some of the youngest people in society and it makes me sick to my stomach to see what should have been a wonderful occasion for young people and their parents, to have these extremists, end the night, in such a horrific manner.
We must do more to protect young people in our country, across Europe and all over the globe, people at this concert last night were as young as 10 years old and the identity of one of the fatalities confirmed as young as 18 years old, who just hours before was filled with such joy when she met her pop idol.
I think it is now time in Ireland that we wake up to the fact we are not exempt from such acts of terror, we must ensure that where we have organised public events such as concerts, matches etc that not only we have security at these events but we have our armed Gardai at these events aswell as members of our defence forces, we must move away from the days where the only check done going in to a concert is that for alcohol in women’s handbags.
I have had calls from members of the public today where they now fear going to such organised events, a constituent of mine who is due to go to the upcoming Coldplay concert in Croke Park is seriously considering not going, it simply is not good enough where you will have 82,000 of our citizens who are there to enjoy for some the most enjoyable night of theirs lives could be subjected to such acts of terror, we must protect them.
I am calling on the Government to ensure that where we have organised public events where large numbers of people will congregate at one time that members of our armed forces are on hand to deal with any situation that may arise or to prevent such an incident from happening, at the moment, it is my honest belief that we are not prepared for such incidents and this is simply not good enough, it is the responsibility of the Government and the members of this house to ensure that we do everything necessary to ensure the safety and peace of mind for our citizens especially when attending such public events in mass amount of numbers.”