Call for more Gardaí in rural parts of Galway

Additional Gardaí must be redeployed to rural stations to combat late night attacks on the elderly and the most vulnerable – attacks which have left them afraid in their own beds.

This is the view of Cllr Mary Hoade, who said that people in her Headford area are still trying to come to terms with the recent break-in to a 99-year-old woman’s house.

She said that this, coupled with reports of attacks on the elderly in other parts of the country, had left people ‘out of their mind with worry’.

In the case of the break-in to the elderly woman at Main Street, Headford, the thief is understood to have stolen a small amount of cash from the woman’s handbag while she slept in her bed.

Gardaí investigating the case believe that the thief entered the house through the backdoor before making off with the cash from her handbag – the woman was not aware that the theft had taken place until sometime later.

Now, Cllr Hoade has sought a meeting with Justice Minister Helen McEntee to address this situation.

She referred to the fact that there was once a Sergeant and four Gardaí in Headford, this was now reduced to just two Gardaí. There were also two Gardaí in Corrandulla Station which is now closed.

“This is just an example of what is happening and a similar situation is replicated across the whole county,” she said.

“What the government does not seem to realise is that there are more people living in rural Galway now compared to when we did have a decent Garda presence

“I have spoken to so many people who are fearful in their own homes and it is genuinely affecting their quality of lives.

“They are not sleeping well; any sound at night frightens them; they are afraid to open their door at any time and this is not right. They are entitled to be afforded a decent quality of life,” Cllr Hoade added.

Figures have revealed that nearly half of all new Gardai in the last five years have been stationed in Dublin. A mere 73 of 3,781 new Garda recruits have been deployed to stations in Galway over the same period.

Clifden’s Cllr Eileen Mannion (FG) agreed that the number of rural break-ins was a concern and she referred to the fact that the Joint Policing Committee seemed to be overly concentrating on illegal dumping as opposed to other crimes.

The Connemara area councillor said that there were a lot of domestic violence crimes taking place as well as a considerable number of break-ins to vulnerable people in rural areas.

According to Cllr Mannion, there needed to be a greater urgency when it came to rural crime and the deployment of Gardai was essential.