This article is from page 24 of the 2005-10-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 24 JPG
MINISTER for State, Tim O’ Malley told the Dail that he has been informed by the Garda au- thorities that a special operation is in place in Kilrush to assist local Gardai in their efforts to prevent and detect acts of criminality in the locality.
He was responding to a call from Deputy Pat Breen to put in place a strategic plan to deal with the anti- social problems in Kilrush that have people living in fear.
“Resources from throughout the Clare division have been, and will continue to be, utilised in this op- eration. Within the past week, one individual has been charged with four acts of criminal damage to cars in the town and is in custody,” Minister O’Malley told the Fine Gael Deputy.
“The Minister for Justice is fur- ther informed that one additional sergeant and two additional Gardai were recently deployed to Kilrush to augment resources. The present special operation will be continual-
ly reviewed and additional resourc- es will be deployed if the necessity arises,’ he added.
In a Dail speech on the issue, Deputy Pat Breen said that as a re- sult of anti-social behaviour in Kil- rush, “elderly people now fear for their safety and worry about their property, while parents are fearful when their children are out”.
“There has been some success by local Gardai in making arrests on this specific issue but this will not be the end of the matter. This is- sue has been allowed to fester, as
have countless similar ones in oth- er towns and villages, where small groups, usually of juveniles, run riot at night and cause thousands of euro of damage. This must be stopped.”
Calling on the Minister to draw up a strategic plan to tackle the problems in Kilrush, Deputy Breen said that such a plan would use the resources of a special Garda unit to assist local efforts in dealing with the ongoing and escalating acts of vandalism and anti-social behav- iour in Kilrush.