The Castlebar Joint Policing Committee was told this week that progress was being made between the committee and the operators of two venues in the town which hold teenage discos. The JPC wants the operators of the disco to operate a system like one that is being used in Galway, where only students of the schools in the vicinity of Castlebar will be allowed attend. This is aimed at preventing large numbers of students from outside the surrounds of the town and from outside the county being bussed into the town for these events.
Castlebar Mayor Cllr Michael Kilcoyne told the meeting that “ a large delegation from this committee met with the two operators a number of weeks ago and they were not very helpful to say the least. They basically told us they were commercial ventures and they operate as they see fit.” Cllr Kilcoyne went on to say that since the initial meeting progress has been made by a sub committee of the JPC.
“Myself and Cllr Therese Ruane met with the operators last week and we are meeting with them again this week [Thursday, June 17],” Cllr Ger Deere told the meeting. “They have agreed to have a look at the system that is operated in Galway and see how it would work. Myself and Cllr Ruane have offered ourselves to act as liaisons between the schools involved and the operators for the roll out of the idea if it gets the go ahead.”
Superintendent Willie Keaveney told the meeting that he welcomed this news. “I’m delighted that progress has been made, everybody has a responsibility in this,” he said. “If you have 1,000 young people brought into the town for the night then you do have a huge responsibility. At the end of the day we do spend an awful lot of time of picking up young people drunk on the street and having to bring them to the station and get them collected when we could be dealing with other matters.”
