This article is from page 26 of the 2008-06-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 26 JPG
A COORACLARE man who claims his daughter was the victim of a minor assault in the seaside town of Kilkee during the bank holiday weekend believes there is need for more gardai to be available in the area.
Kilkee town councillor Claire Haugh (FF), who in the past has been vocal about the need for more gardai in the town during the sum- mer months, said while she was not familiar with this case gardai had been maintaining a high profile in
the area during the busy weekends and praised them for their work to CFT Ken
On Sunday evening the Cooraclare man said he had been at the beach with his two daughters when his young teenage daughter decided to go to buy an ice cream.
On her way out of the shop anoth- er teen which, he said, was visibly drunk knocked the ice-cream cone into her face.
He said that he called the gardai in Kilkee immediately but they had gone off duty and when he rang Kil- rush he was told the squad car had
gone out on another job.
A local Garda spokesperson said that there was now a sergeant and two gardai stationed in Kilkee.
He said there was a member of the Kilkee unit on duty from 9am until Spm on the day in question and the squad had driven out to the area on numerous occasions.
Former Kilkee mayor Cllr Haugh said she was happy with the number of gardai on duty during the busy bank holiday weekend.
“There was a lot of coverage at night in the town and gardai on the beat during the weekend, I saw it my-
self,’ she said.
She commended the superintend- ent in Kilrush saying he put exten- sive manpower in to the busy seaside town during the peak summer season and the busy weekends.
During the summer months the population of Kilkee swells to more than 20,000 people or more than 10 times its off-peak population.
Up to approximately two years ago councillors from Kilkee were calling for more Garda coverage during the busy summer months.
This situation has now been vastly improved according to Cllr Haugh.