Gardaí were last night (Wednesday ) questioning five men from County Offaly following a suspected arson attack on a house in Ballybrit on Sunday.
The men were all arrested following a dramatic swoop by armed gardai in Clare and Tullamore yesterday and all were transfered to garda stations across county Galway for questioning.
The house, located in the Cluain Ard development, was extensively damaged by a fire which started at 12.30am on Sunday. Eight people who were in the house at the time were forced to flee while one of the occupants, a woman, had to jump from an upstairs window in order to escape the blaze.
The woman and a child, who was also in the house when it was engulfed in flames, were treated for injuries in University Hospital Galway following the incident.
An investigation was launched into the blaze and gardaí sealed off the house for a technical examination.
Gardaí appealed to the public for information following the fire, asking anyone who noticed suspicious activity in the Cluain Ard area on Saturday night or early Sunday morning to contact Galway Garda Station at (091 ) 538000.
“A house was attacked and burned in an arson attack.
“One woman was forced to jump from a top floor window to safety,” Supt Tony O’Donnell said earlier this week. “We are appealing to any witnesses to contact Galway gardaí in confidence.”
The investigation led gardaí to carry out searches and arrest a number of people in Offaly yesterday (Wednesday ).
The searches, which were carried out in Clara and Tullamore, Co Offaly, involved some 35 gardaí from the Galway and Offaly Garda divisions, backed up by armed members of the Garda Regional Support Unit.
Five men, all in their twenties, were arrested and detained under the provisions of Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939-1998.
The men were brought to Garda stations in Galway, Loughrea, and Ballinasloe where they were last night being questioned in relation to the incident.
It was unclear at the time of going to press whether the arrested men would be released this morning or detained for further questioning. Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act allows for suspects to be detained for up to 72 hours.
The blaze led Galway West TD Frank Fahey to attack the Private Residential Tenancies Board, saying that it is a “useless, toothless organisation” that is “failing to play its part” in tackling dangerous anti-social behaviour in Galway city.
Over the past six months, Deputy Fahey has asked the PRTB to address several complaints from residents in Cluain Ard who have been terrorised by the behaviour of some of their neighbours.
In November, the board declined Deputy Fahey’s invitation to a meeting on the issue with the City Manager, the gardaí, the HSE and senior officials from the Department of Social Protection and the Revenue Commissioners.
“I have contacted the PRTB on several occasions regarding the specific problems in Cluain Ard,” said Deputy Fahey.
“In its reply, it said tenants are legally obliged not to behave anti-socially and landlords are responsible for enforcing this.
“The rules are very clear-cut and yet the PRTB has failed to act. The PRTB is showing itself to be a toothless, useless body.”
Dep Fahey said the PRTB was set up with the purpose of ensuring responsible behaviour by both landlords and tenants and so he can not “understand why it won’t instigate action when it sees blatant flouting of the rules”.
Following the recent arson attack in the estate, Dep Fahey said there is now an “urgent need for a multi-agency approach to deal with the growing problem.
However, his comments were themselves attacked by local residents last night who said that they did not like media coverage which increased the risk of them being labelled“neighbours from Hell.”
