Senior Gardaí to attend RCDC meeting

Assistant Garda Commissioner Jack Nolan will be joined by senior gardaí from Tipperary at this Thursday's public meeting of Roscrea Community Development Council (RCDC).

The meeting on policing, to which all are encouraged to attend, will take place in the Abbey Hall at 8pm. RCDC insists that if Roscrea and district is to get its share of scarce garda resources and maintain those resources, then the people of Roscrea and its large district, which is now expected to be served by those resources, must be constantly vigilant in this regard. Otherwise the successes which may have been achieved by the hard work of limited garda resources in Roscrea and its surrounding areas will be eroded. With retirements and/or garda transfers not being replaced, policing resources in Roscrea are not adequate for purpose and thus the communities who depend on those resources are being left vulnerable.

 

The attendance at Thursday night’s meeting will include Assistant Garda Commissioner Jack Nolan, Chief Superintendent of the Tipperary Garda Division Catherine Kehoe, Superintendent Robert Noonan, Inspector Oliver Henry and Sergeant Mark Kelly.

 

“It is most important”, says RCDC’s Chairman John Lupton, “that the people of Roscrea and district assert themselves and insist on adequate police resources. If resources are not adequate, policing, despite the best efforts of the gardaí on the ground, cannot be adequate.

 

“Eighteen months ago the people of Roscrea asserted themselves in the context of what they saw as a growing drug problem. Additional resources were made available following that and I think most will agree that with the use of those resources and the development of an interactive relationship with community, the gardaí were able to tackle criminality with greater success and thus people and communities felt safer. “However, this progress can be wiped out much quicker and easier than it was achieved. At the moment, this is the prospect which Roscrea and district is facing. Roscrea always, to my memory, had, at least, two garda sergeants and now I understand we only have one garda sergeant, with the size of course of the area to be served being much greater and the challenge on policing more complex, given the changing nature of criminality which places the most vulnerable people in community especially the young more at risk. While our proximity to motorway gives criminality a greater mobility, it makes our community, through its location, more vulnerable and at risk.”

 

Mr Lupton also says, as he and RCDC has been saying for some time, that with the amalgamation of the county and the replacement of the smaller Templemore/Roscrea electoral area with the larger Thurles/Templemore Municipal District, of which Roscrea is now part of, that Roscrea from a political representational point of view is very much more marginalised than it was.

 

“Thus,” says the RCDC Chairman, “there is relatively much greater onus on the people of Roscrea and district to empower themselves as otherwise garda resources will be allocated to other areas which are not as peripherally located in terms of county geographical location and constituency political representation as Roscrea is.” Roscrea, he says, has lost much of its infrastructure, especially its economic infrastructure over past years, which is likely never to be replaced. And if this is to continue and be coupled with a diminution of services to include garda services, which would happen if garda resources in Roscrea continue to be diluted, then Roscrea will fast become a village rather than a progressive town.

 

Thus he urges the people to empower themselves and do so now by attending this Thursday night’s public meeting in the Abbey Hall and demand, through Assistant Commissioner Nolan, that increased Garda resources, especially in manpower, be made available in the town and district of Roscrea, so that people can feel safer, with businesses, farms, households feeling more secure and that those for whom we have the greatest responsibility of care, our young and our elderly, are less vulnerable to the prey of criminality.