Crime is now completely ‘out of control’ in the busy tourism town of Cashel

There were deep discussions at the recent Tipperary/Cahir/Cashel Municipal District meeting in relation to the rise in antisocial behavior.

Issues in Cashel and Emly were both highlighted by councillors and raised as part of the District Administrators report where calls were made that a community safety meeting, currently not scheduled until October, could be brought forward.

Examples of this in Cashel include how the bottle banks were cut open recently (see picture), the local GAA club was broken into while there was extensive damage to cars and theft too. Issues are becoming more frequent since the garda presence was reduced in the town.

Currently, gardaí cover a wide geographical area meaning that there are times where there are no Gardai in the town of Cashel. 

“There are a lot of ongoing issues in the town of Cashel in relation to Garda presence,” said Councillor Burgess. 

“The future of policing in the town and the increase in antisocial behavior need to be addressed,” he said. 
Cllr Burgess stressed the importance of the meeting of public representatives and An Garda Síochána “as the need for it has increased” manifold in recent months. 

Cllr Liam Browne spoke up after Cllr Burgess and said that he supported the meeting being brought forward as “every support” was needed to ensure the issues are addressed.

He said bringing forward the community safety meeting was of the utmost importance and said “maybe I’m jumping the gun myself as I wrote to the Superintendent to look for a public meeting in Cashel to speak about it, because levels of anti-social behavior and crime have gone out of control,” he said.

He felt the people of Cashel need to be addressed immediately by the gardaí in relation to the matter. Cllr Roger Kennedy supported the call too and he said while it may need the Gardai to speak to the people of Cashel, the councillors could put that directly to the Police force. 

Councillor John O’Heney spoke up as well on the matter drawing on his own experience in another part of Tipperary. 

Cllr O’Heney said that he would support Cllr Burgess in getting the meeting brought forward as had seen first hand that there were similar issues elsewhere in Tipperary: “In part of Emly at the minute there are huge issues as regards anti-social behavior.”

He went on to say that it is particularly aimed at elderly people and that matters in relation to the matter were causing huge stress to people. “I am in consultation with the local gardaí,” he said, adding that he has had many, many people come to him in relation to the matter as antisocial behavior is a major issue. 

Local residents groups are also raising the matter and it was made clear that the time to sweep issues under the carpet has passed so the meeting to ensure An Garda Síochána can “step up” and reverse the trend is now more necessary than ever before.