An attack on the heart of the community

The members of the Monaghan Municipal District want a greater presence of Gardaí on the beat across North Monaghan, writes Peter Hughes.

At Monday’s meeting of the local authority body, which heard condemnation of a number of recent incidents of crime and anti-social behaviour, there was unanimous support for a motion from FG councillor Alan Johnston, which requested that correspondence be sent to Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly seeking additional Garda personnel for the district “for the purposes of community patrols”.

Cllr Johnston referred to the rollout in Cork of a community policing initiative that had been successful in reducing anti-social behaviour. He added that a visible Garda presence made the public feel more secure and dissuaded people from engaging in criminal damage and anti-social behaviour.

The motion was seconded by Cllr Pauric Clerkin (FG), who condemned a break-in that occurred last weekend at the Village Brew community coffee dock facility in the Carrickroe area of North Monaghan. Cllr Clerkin labelled this “a terrible incident” and an attack on the heart of the community that was completely unacceptable.

Several recent break-ins in rural locations in the MD area had left people living in fear, he claimed. Cllr Clerkin was also critical of the number of incidents of littering and illegal dumping that were happening along rural roads, asking what the local authority could do to curb this or attempt to educate people.

“A number of Tidy Towns activists have contacted me about this problem,” he stated, “which is becoming a real eyesore on our rural roads.”

Cllr Bronagh McAree (SF) expressed sympathy to the Carrickroe community on the recent break-in, stating that local people took great pride in this facility. She joined with Cllr Clerkin in appealing to people who might have information in relation to the crime to contact the investigating gardaí.

Cllr McAree also raised concerns about littering in the vicinity of clothing banks. She said that a number of these repositories are not emptied on a regular basis and this leads to the dumping of bags there.

Municipal District co-ordinator, Martin Taylor, said that Monaghan County Council employs a litter warden but once-off littering is difficult to stop. In cases of larger illegal dumping of household refuse, the warden would be notified if these are reported and would carry out an investigation to determine if the refuse contained evidence of those who might be responsible for the offence.

The Cathaoirleach, Cllr Seamus Treanor (Ind) referred to an incident of the recent past when the perpetrator of the dumping of eight bags of rubbish in a location just outside Monaghan Town had been successfully identified. This individual had paid a €150 fine to the local authority and escaped court prosecution, but in his view, this person should have been brought to court for what was a very serious offence.

Cllr Seán Conlon said the cost for the local authority of dealing with this illegal dumping incident was not reflected in the fine imposed. “The cost wouldn’t have stopped at €1,000,” he suggested.