LOCAL Sinn Fein TD Maurice Quinlivan said he is concerned at a lack of visible community Gardaí in parts of Limerick City as a car was driven into a housing estate and set alight as children walked past the blaze on their way to school.
The Limerick TD also described as “nonsense” a new Garda communications system which results in people who want to report crimes in Limerick being transferred to a Garda station in Cork.
“When you ring the Gardaí (at Henry Street) now they want your name and address or they won’t deal with you basically, then they transfer the call to Cork and you go through the whole thing again. This is really putting people off ringing the Gardai,” said Deputy Quinlivan.
“It’s supposed to be a more efficient way of doing it, but it is nonsense.”
Meanwhile, Gardaí said they were investigating the suspicious car blaze which occurred at Lee Estate on Island Road around 9am last Thursday morning (October 19) as children walked out of the estate to a nearby school.
The car, a white 151L registered vehicle, was driven into the Lee Estate and set on fire on a green area adjacent to houses.
Sources said a second vehicle that appeared to be waiting on standby nearby collected a person/persons suspected of being involved.
A Garda spokeswoman confirmed that “Gardaí responded to reports of a car fire on 19th October on Island Road, Limerick” and that their “investigations are ongoing at this time”.
Photographs sent to the Limerick Post show a firefighter attached to Limerick City and County Fire and Emergency Services putting out the car fire in the estate.
Posting a photograph of the car on fire on his Facebook page, Deputy Maurice Quinlivan wrote: “This car just been burned out this morning – shocking for local people to have to put up with this.”
Deputy Quinlivan said he had contacted Gardaí and Limerick City and County Council to get the car removed.
“Shocking thing for locals to have to witness especially as kids were on the way to school,” Deputy Quinlivan stated.
“We need the return of community Gardai and a much better Garda visibility across the city.”
Mr Quinlivan told the Limerick Post that “Gardai need to be a bit more proactive” in tackling crime.
“There’s been a number of robbed cars and burned out cars over the last couple of months, and we need to make sure that there is a strong and robust response to say anybody involved in this stuff is simply not fair on people.”
“That car was burnt out when kids were going to school and it’s not fair they had to witness that.
“If you ask anybody, anywhere, they don’t see a community Garda,” Deputy Quinlivan concluded.
Last month the Garda Representative Association said community policing patrols were being shelved as part of a reintroduction of a pre-Covid-19 staff roster. However, Garda Headquarters said community policing would not be affected.