ASBOs fail to impact on lives in vulnerable communities

THERE is something overwhelmingly wrong about the thought of elderly people living alone, being too scared to tell gardaí or local authorities about their daily lives of fear.

However, councillors in most large local authority housing estates will tell you that this fear and powerlessness is one of the most common issues when meeting their constituents. They tell you about the partying seven nights a week, about the children wandering out on the green in the early hours of the morning and the ever-present terror that some reveller will decide to put a stone through your window or attack your home.

These same councillors will tell you that gardaí do their best to apprehend people when the law allows them to and local authorities also try to stop this assault on communities but know that, when the fight hits the court, that they will often lose out.