Aontú's Paul Lawless calls on Varadkar to tackle crime in Mayo

A candidate for next year's local elections has called an Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to to tackle crime in rural Ireland ahead of his visit to Mayo and Galway on Thursday (August 10).

Paul Lawless, Peace Commissioner for the Claremorris area and Aontú representative for Mayo, said the Claremorris garda district is 'massively overstretched', covering a region from Cong to Claremorris.

Last week, it was revealed that none of 87 newly-graduated gardaí were to be stationed in Mayo. 

An analysis from the Irish Independent last year revealed that 16 Mayo garda stations recorded slight increases in reported incidents between 2017 and 2021. Six stations recorded decreases in the same period. 

Theft, shoplifting, burglaries and assaults all rose in the county last year while sexual assaults and robberies decreased. 

"Minister for Justice Helen McEntee recently announced more resources and gardaí for Dublin in response to the recent attacks on the streets of the capital and the US Embassy warnings to its citizens visiting Dublin. However, this is not just a Dublin problem, it is also a problem here in Mayo," said Mr Lawless.

"Assaults, burglaries, thefts, public order offences, sexual assaults and drug crime have grown to worrying levels in Mayo in recent times. It is good to see an increase in gardai in Dublin, but what does it take to increase the numbers in Mayo?"

Mr Lawless added that it was 'shameful' that more resources were not being given to tackling drug crime in Mayo. 

In 2021, 275 were drug-related offences were reported to Mayo garda stations, amounting to 9.6 percent of all reported crimes.

"We need a radical rethink in how we approach crime in the county and this country and we must start by giving the gardaí the numbers and resources they need to do their job they are skilled at doing to the best of their ability," said Mr Lawless, who has previously stood for the Dáil, Seanad and county council. 

"Successive governments are happy to overwhelm gardai, just as they do with medical staff in the health sector, and the time to shout stop has long passed.

"I spoke with a garda in south Mayo recently who told me that they don't have the resources to deal with the lesser problems in the area. They don't have time to go after lower level drug activity in the area due to resourcing."