Business in Gort blighted by street drinkers

All-day street drinkers are causing huge problems for businesses and residents of Gort, a public policing meeting held in the town was told.

Gardaí have vowed to put a plan in place to tackle the problem but they may need new bye-laws to be introduced by Galway County Council to help them.

Businesswoman Fiona O’Driscoll said the scourge of street drinkers, who start boozing at 11am and continue all day long, persists in the town.

Ms O’Driscoll of Supervalu, and a member of the Burren Lowlands group, said drinking during the day on the street was having a negative impact on business and tourism in Gort.

She told last week’s public meeting of the County Galway Joint Policing Committee (JPC) in O’Sullivan’s Hotel that day-time public drinking has been ongoing for two or three years.

Ms O’Driscoll has phoned Gort Gardaí to the report the problem on a number of occasions, although she acknowledged that their “hands are tied to a degree”.

Garda Chief Superintendent Tom Curley said there are no local bye-laws in place allowing Gardaí to seize and destroy alcohol from street-drinkers. Bye-laws were a matter for the local authority, he said, however there is national legislation in relation to public order that could be used to combat the problem highlighted by Ms O’Driscoll.

“If there is an issue, we’ll put a plan in place to deal with it . . . we can put an operation in place to tackle it,” he said.

The latest Garda statistics for Galway, excluding Salthill and the city, were presented to the public meeting in Gort.

They showed there were some 286 public order incidents recorded in Galway County from January to the end of October this year. That represented a drop of 2% compared with the same period last year.