Council seeks extra gardaí

THE Government is being put under pressure to provide extra gardaí in Waterford city to tackle spiralling levels of crime.

Waterford City Council has passed a motion urging the coalition partners to provide extra resources to tackle vandalism, thuggery, joyriding and street violence.

Local authority members say that the public have given up reporting crime such as theft and attacks. Statistics from the area showing that crime is on a downward trend give a false impression.

Elderly people and those living on their own are particularly vulnerable, Labour’s Pat Hayes, said.

The Workers Party’s John Halligan said people are not reporting crime anymore because they know in a lot of cases, nobody is going to be caught or brought to justice.

“The government does not take these incidents into consideration when they are looking at the figures which show that crime is down.

“The gardaí can deal with huge criminal gangs but they can’t deal with thugs who are destroying our city and contributing to anti-social behaviour,” he added.