Crime and Safety are Major Issues for Kildare voters – Daly

Fine Gael Kildare South General Election candidate, Cllr Richard Daly has said that residents throughout the constituency have complained about the escalation of crime and the fears for their personal safety and the protection of their property.

“We have seen in recent weeks newspaper headlines relating to thugs and vandalism in several Kildare towns, a lack of implementation of our laws to protect our citizens and a Garda force which is under resourced and understaffed as our population booms in the county.

The basic “life-threatening”issues of crime and health are what need to be addressed and urgently. Castledermot, Newbridge, Monasterevin and Athy have all been victims of thuggery and vandalism in the past couple of weeks while the promised resources to our Gardai have not arrived.

An under equipped Garda force cannot respond to the escalation of anti social behaviour and crime. The criticism on the doorstep is not about the Gardai, it is about the lack of Gardai.

Over the past nine years the current government has shown they incapable of addressing the crime issue which affects our county despite the billions of unexpected euro in the state coffers. Equipping our Gardai will not have an inflationary effect and the money is there .”said cllr Daly

“Lack of Garda numbers mean that responses have to be prioritized. The urgent takes precedence to the most important. Crime response replaces crime prevention. The force becomes a fire brigade instead of a community resource for prevention.

The powerless people in our towns and villages can rest assured that making Kildare a safe place to live is one of my main priorities. Our elderly must feel safe in their homes and we as a community must ensure that as a society we take steps to address the basic neglect of our citizens rights to security.

In order to give local residents the opportunity to express their views on the current situation in their community I am holding a Public Meeting in Monasterevin on the coming Wed (1st Nov) in the Hazel Hotel where members of the community will be invited to express their opinion.”