This article is from page 10 of the 2014-06-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
PEOPLE charged with criminal offences who are released on bail are now facing more regular inspection under a new regime of bail enforcement.
Gardaí in Clare have taken what has been described as “systematic approach” to the enforcement of bail conditions set down by the court.
The number of applications to the District Court from the State seeking to revoke the bail of persons accused of breaching conditions has markedly increased in recent weeks.
A senior garda last week told Ennis District Court there has been a “seachange” in the monitoring of people released on bail.
Insp Tom Kennedy was speaking after a man accused of burglary told the court that gardaí are calling to his home on a daily basis.
Judge Patrick Durcan asked Insp Kennedy if a daily level of vigilance was not counterproductive in terms of ensuring people on bail abide by conditions.
Insp Kennedy said it is unlikely inspections are carried out on a daily basis. But he said gardaí in Clare are maintaining a high level of vigilance.
“It wasn’t too long ago that we were being abused for not enforcing bail conditions but you can see there has been a sea-change,” he added.
His comments come in a week when a local Fine Gael councillor said more restrictive bail conditions could help address the issue of antisocial behaviour in the town.
“Really as a community we should be looking at very restrictive conditions put on every bail for offences on public order, theft or anything that is a threat to the quality of life in our community,” said Johnny Flynn.
Cllr Flynn added, “In our business we have 11 people employed and one day a seven year-old took out a knife demanding quicker service. That was about two years ago.”
He was speaking at a public meeting in Ennis on Thursday night. Ana Bella Alvarez, the Director of the upcoming Ennis Street Festival, said anti-social behaviour by teenagers is affecting tourism.
“When tourists come to the town and they see all this messing in the town, their experience is not positive, it’s negative,” she said.
Chairman of Promote Ennis, Brian O’Neill told the meeting “it is a statistical fact that Ennis has a very low rate of crime in comparison to other towns of its size and population in the country.
“It does superbly well. I think the gardai need to be applauded for the fantastic work they are doing. I suppose we also note that we would like to see an additional presence on the streets and additional community gardaí to assist in the reduction of anti-social behaviour,” he added.