Politician: Get army to help deal with Travellers

A politician has called for Defence Forces backup to deal with Travellers who have set up home in Co Donegal.

The group, which contains more than 20 English-registered camper vans, has already been involved in two stand-offs with locals.

They have been moved on from a car park of SuperValu in Ballybofey after setting up illegally.

The group relocated to the car park of Aldi in Dungloe, which was thronged with visitors for the annual Mary from Dungloe festival.

Gardaí, in marked and unmarked cars, are continuing to monitor the situation.

Local county councillor Patrick McGowan has demanded gardaí receive the full support of the army to move the group on if they have set up home illegally.

“I believe the army should be available to back up the over-stretched gardaí especially in cases such as happened in Donegal town, Ballybofey, and Convoy recently,” he said.

“Local gardaí could be putting themselves in danger if there is insufficient gardaí available at any one time to deal with routine policing and at the same time trying to manage situations such as we have experienced this last while, when a large contingent of Travellers arrived in town.

“It is not on when this group arrived, as they were parking illegally without having made any prior arrangements to locate a suitable site.”

The Fianna Fáil councillor said residents and businesses were worried, and requested more gardaí to be present.

“I believe businesses are paying enough taxes and rates with out having to pay for private security as well,” said Mr McGowan.

There have been some minor offences but no arrests have been made. Shops have started to operate a policy of only allowing a certain number of people into their premises at any one time.