Anti social behaviour and crime that is taking place in Athlone on a regular basis is completely unacceptable. It is important to say that I am not stigmatising Athlone as this carry on is a nationwide problem but it is an issue in Athlone that is causing fear, stress and huge inconvenience to the local general public who go about their normal daily activities.
Recently, I had my own personal experience of anti social behaviour while dismantling the Athlone Christmas Market cabins at 6.15am on the morning of the 18th December 2023. Two individuals were roaring and fighting where damage was subsequently caused to a business property in Church Street.
After calling the Garda Station to send assistance to remove these people from the street it was so annoying for me to say that it took the Gardai and hour and twenty minutes to travel 700 meters to the scene of the incident. This is completely not good enough.
If they had come earlier the damage to the business premises would not have happened plus they would have saved the taxpayer money by not having to get an ambulance to have brought one of these perpetrators to hospital for free medical treatment and more that likely a nice hot breakfast.
This experience which I have shared above might seem minuscule in the minds of some people, but it clearly points out that there is something not working with the Garda cover in Athlone. I need to make it clear that the Gardai members in Athlone are doing the best with the resources that they have. The issue lies on the doorsteps of Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, Commissioner Drew Harris, our Chief Superintendent in Navan and two Superintendents in Mullingar who are responsible for policing within the Division.
Again it highlights the fact that I have been continuously saying that the removal of the Superintendent from Athlone who would deal with daily policing matters was a retrograde step. But sure then, Minister McEntee has secured the Chief Superintendent for this Division in her town of Navan and Mullingar has two Superintendents covering day to day policing.
This is so wrong and unfair on the people of Athlone and District and it is something that I will continue to highlight and look to be rectified.
The Government has a policy to encourage people to live in Town Centres which is definitely a worthy initiative but law and order needs to be sorted out first. It must be very difficult for people living in town centre urban areas to get a good night’s sleep with such continuous anti social behaviour taking place on the streets.
Secondly, my heart goes out to our business community who have publicly spoken about similiar incidents with slow response times from the Gardai.
It is the law abiding taxpaying person, who go about their daily lives working hard to rear their families that are been penalised. In other words, the victims are penalised while the culprit gets a nice hot breakfast and free medical aid at the States expense.
