A young man is in a critical condition in hospital and battling for life today after a vicious attack in the early hours.
The victim suffered serious head injuries during the incident, which occurred at around 2.30am on Sunday on Dublin’s D’Olier Street, near the junction with Fleet Street.
Gardai rushed to the scene where emergency services treated the 20-year-old before removing him by ambulance to St James’s Hospital.
Read More: Man in critical condition after assault in Dublin as gardai appeal for witnesses
Officers carried out a follow-up search under warrant at a house in Kildare and a man in his 30s was arrested and was being quizzed about the incident today.
The suspect was detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at Pearse Street Garda Station, while a forensic examination was carried out at the scene.
He has since been charged and will appear before the Criminal Courts of Justice on Monday morning.
Gardai have appealed for witnesses to come forward and asked anyone with camera footage from the location at the time of the incident to provide it to them.
Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn, the vice chair of the Dublin City Joint Policing Committee, called for special task force to be established to tackle a surge in criminality.
He said: “First of all I’d be very concerned that the person would recover and my concern would be about his family, it’s a very difficult time.
“Unfortunately, it’s another appalling incident in our society.”
Cllr Flynn, who said he is deeply concerned by the lawlessness on city streets at night, added: “It’s very difficult to recover from the trauma of an unprovoked asault on the street, it takes a lifetime because of the post traumatic stress that surrounds it.
“I have a block of flats [Mercer Street] in Dublin where there was shots fired on a weekend [April 8] and they’re in absolute post traumatic disorder, the children are terrified that someone’s going to come and shoot at them and there’s nobody actually giving them assistance.
“Dublin City Council doesn’t provide counselling, doesn’t provide any back-up [services], nobody managed to go into there and say, ‘Can we help you?’.”
Cllr Flynn insisted many serious incidents are not being reported in the city because of intimidation and a lack of confidence that justice will be delivered.
He added: “The general citizens need the Minister [for Justice], the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste to start initiating the processes at how we actually prevent things from happening and delivering the consequences.
“It’s never the knife they are carrying, it’s the anger that they’re carrying and the violence that they’re carrying that causes the offence.
“We need to have a special task force within the city to be able to deal with these matters and we know that when there is such attention given to areas, like for instance like when we gave it to the north inner city, how the State got great successes.”
A statement from An Garda Siochana read: “Gardaí at Pearse Street are appealing for witnesses in relation to a serious assault that occurred in Dublin City Centre in the early hours of Sunday, April 17.
“Shortly after 2.30 am, Gardaí and Emergency Services attended after a man in his mid 20s was seriously injured in the course of an incident on D’Olier Street, near the junction with Fleet Street.”
Gardai have asked anyone who witnessed the attack on D’Olier Street or has camera footage to contact Pearse Street Garda Station on 01 6669000, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.
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