This article is from page 8 of the 2009-09-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
THE Government has turned a blind eye to An Garda Siochana’s policy of increased urbanization.
That’s the view of Clare Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen who has called on Justice Minister Dermot Ahern to review the strategy and to put gardai back into the rural areas.
“The only 24-hour Garda stations in Clare are in Ennis, Shannon, Kil- rush, Killaloe and Ennistymon. The
other Garda stations open for just a few hours each day,” Deputy Breen Sr nLe
‘In recent months, I have received a number of calls from people who live in isolated parts of the county and are worried about the increased inci- dence of burglaries in their areas.
“They are concerned that the short opening hours of their local Garda stations are resulting in gardai having to travel long distances to respond to incidents.”
Deputy Breen’s concerns were ech- oed by party colleague, Joe Carey.
He said, “There is something not quite right when almost the only in- teraction of people with the Garda is on meeting the traffic corps. There has been a conscious decision to develop elements such as the traf- fic corps, leaving rural stations and community policing to wither and die.
“Over the past number of weeks there has been a marked increase in
burglaries throughout the county.
“If you take a line from Coose in Galway through to Whitegate, Scar- riff, Broadford and Quin, roughly the R352 regional road, I can recount four individual incidents.
“Many homeowners in the east Clare to south-east Galway artery find themselves having to put more elaborate security systems in place. Sheds and storage areas resemble an Irish version of Fort Knox.
‘East Clare is a massive geographi-
cal area which has been further in- creased with the redrawing of the operational areas. This is an area served by the part-time Garda station in Scariff with just one patrol car and a maximum of five gardai.
“T am convinced that one can link what is happening to the economy with the increase in crime towards property and belongings of the per- son. No doubt this phenomenon will increase steadily if we do not do something,” he said.