24-hour Garda presence tackles antisocial behaviour in Eyre Square

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – A 24-hour Garda presence has been assigned to Eyre Square to deal with ongoing antisocial behaviour issues.

A meeting of the Galway City Joint Policing Committee (JPC) heard this week that following repeated complaints from local representatives – and in the wake of a young woman being seriously injured by fireworks last October – Gardaí have now been situated in the Square on a permanent basis.

Superintendent Damian Flanagan told the meeting that as of three weeks ago, there was a full-time Garda presence – 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“It is to the detriment of other areas of the city, but it is having an impact and they are there all of the time,” he said.

This came as Cllr Alan Cheevers (FF) raised ‘huge concern’ over the increase in the number of assaults in the city – a significant proportion of which had happened in or around Eyre Square, he claimed.

Figures given to the JPC revealed that assaults causing harm had increased significantly year-on-year – rising from fewer than five in the first two months of last year to 20 this year.

This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read the rest of the story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.