Castlebar Superintendent Willie Keaveney told the Castlebar joint policing committee that residents need to report incidents of anti social behaviour if they want to see action taken by the Gardaí to curb it in the town. The superintendent told a meeting on Monday: “We have been meeting with residents of the estates in relation to this issue and we have the powers under anti social behaviour laws to deal with issues, but it will mean that residents will have to come forward and provide evidence if we receive a complaint.”
Sinn Féin councillor Therese Ruane asked the superintendent about the possibility of using restorative justice in such cases as a way of making amends for infractions. Supt Keaveney explained: “There are powers in place to use that system with young people only and we can’t enforce it for people who are over 18.”
Fine Gael councillor Noreen Heston informed the meeting that she has met with at least half the residents’ associations in the town along with the superintendent whom she praised for assigning a specific garda to each area so that the residents know that they can contact an individual garda if they need to report an incident. Mayor of Castlebar Michael Kilcoyne welcomed the news that individual gardaí have been assigned to estates telling the meeting: “It gives the people a certain confidence that they have a person to go to who will care if they need to report something.”
