The Government has been condemned by a former mayor of the city for not giving community and voluntary organisations enough time to apply for home security items for older people.
Fine Gael councillor Pádraig Conneely has accused the Government of “penny pinching” over its Community Support Scheme for Older People.
He said local community and voluntary organisations had only an 11 day period to apply for funding to install personal monitored alarms and items of home security to enable older people to live independently in their own homes
“The latest CSO crime figures show a 51 per cent increase in burglaries in 2009 compared with 2008,” he said. “The spate of buglaries in recent times in Galway city highlights the need for greater community policing.”
