Council has a role in weeding out criminals

I WOULD like to commend the former Mayor of Limerick, Cllr Joe Leddin, for his good intentions (Letters, June 27), but I deplore his method of defending our city. It is not wise to shoot the messenger for reminding us that the barbarians are still inside the gates.

In my letter headlined ‘Priest is right about city problems’ (June 20), I never claimed Limerick City Council is “to blame for all the ills in our housing estates”.

However, it is responsible for those to whom it rents houses. I don’t think the Fitzgerald report would have recommended that the city council “should make full use of all legal remedies available to it to deal with tenants engaged in criminal and/or anti-social behaviour” if this was being done already.

Furthermore, law and order is not simply “a matter for the gardaí”, as Cllr. Leddin asserts.

As the sanitary authority, Limerick City Council is also responsible for ensuring that properties in its charge are not allowed to become and remain illegal dumps.

I didn’t mention Tim O’Malley in my letter; he was one of several candidates I said I would consider voting for in the recent general election if I hadn’t run myself.

I said at the time that while I disagreed with most PD policies, he struck me as the most sincere and hardworking of the incumbents.

And unlike Cllr Leddin, whenever I had occasion to argue with Mr O’Malley about policing and other issues, he always paid me a compliment by his use of reasoned argument .

I am aware of Labour’s policing policy and support for the Fitzgerald report.

It is possible to quell the anarchy that prevails in some of our estates with“… a minimum of 100 additional gardaí, with appropriate management structures whose sole function will be the policing of these areas”, as recommended by the Fitzgerald report, which is now Government policy.

As a member of an opposition party, Cllr Leddin should join Fr Joe Young, instead of censuring him, and demand that the Government implements this policy as a matter of urgency. It is an outrage that people are being intimidated and burnt out of their homes.

Cllr Leddin failed to answer my main question: what is he doing to help bring that “minimum of 100 additional gardaí” to Limerick?

Cathal McCarthy

5 Weston Gardens

Rosbrien

Limerick