More than 30 Traveller cars impounded during holiday

Gardaí impounded over 30 cars belonging to visiting Travellers in Rathkeale, Co Limerick, over the Christmas/New Year holiday.

A Garda spokesman said all the cars impounded had foreign registration plates and had been stopped for offences, such as being driven without insurance and licence.

A release fee of €135 had to be paid to have each vehicle recovered from aGarda car pound in the city.

Two visiting Travellers were jailed for two months and fined €1,000 arising out of a high-speed race in two powerful cars on the N21 on Christmas Day.

Both are out on bail pending an appeal.

Up to 3,500 Travellers descended on the town from Britain and continental Europe.

The HSE yesterday said the special triage clinic opened to cater for visiting Travellers dealt with almost 400 consultations over the 14-day period it was open.

A HSE spokeswoman said: “The objective of the clinic was to provide a complementary service to mainstream general practice in the Rathkeale area over the Christmas period and to stop inappropriate attendances at the Emergency Department of the Mid-Western Regional Hospital resulting in tremendous pressure on the A&E staff and long delays.

“At the clinic we provided 98.5 hours over 14 days. The clinic was operational from 10am to 6pm — an extension to the previous clinic that closed at 5pm.

“A total of 398 consultations took place during the 14 days of the clinic, with the average daily attendance of 28.”

Local county council representative, Cllr Stephen Keary, said some Travellers caused serious problems due to their “arrogant and nasty behaviour” towards local residents.

He said: “As well as the Christmas Day driving incident, there was another serious incident where two vehicles, with foreign number plates, raced past a local man in his car and overtook him on either side at high speed. Crazy stuff.

“These were two most serious incidents involving the visiting Travellers.

“However, many still behave in the usual, nasty, arrogant manner on the road showing no consideration for people residing here.

“I don’t think they would get away with this kind of behaviour in the UK and Europe, where they normally reside. They’d be locked up.

“There is too much tolerance shown here.

“The streets in the town were regularly strewn with litter and some of the carry-on was just atrocious.

“I feel it is time a CCTV system was put up in Rathkeale and this would greatly help the gardaí. We had hoped to get one for €40,000, but it had to be deferred.”