Ballivor residents say lack of visible garda presence leaves them a target for travelling gangs of criminals

A protest over the lack of garda presence in Ballivor prompted by a spate of burglaries in the locality last week took place outside Ballivor Garda Station on Saturday.

Local residents say that without a visible garda presence in the area, it leaves them a target for travelling gangs of criminals who are hitting rural areas either with no garda stations or ones that are not actively manned.

In the early hours of last Tuesday morning, 25th February, two Ballivor businesses and another in nearby Kildalkey were victims of burglaries, while businesses in Killucan and Rathwire in Westmeath were also hit. This followed a spate of car thefts in Ballivor estates the previous weekend.

The crimes prompted local resident Claire O'Mara, who is a member of Ballivor Community Council, to organise Saturday's protest and she said that rather than sit around giving out, they felt enough was enough and it was time to do something about it.

"It's too close to home, what is the next step if they can't get any cash out of the businesses? Are they going to start targetting people in their homes? People are fearful that if something happens, there are no gardai to protect us.

"We've often called the gardai during the night to be told they are busy dealing with an incident in trim, we will be with you as soon as we can. That is not good enough. The very, very odd time you would see a patrol car knocking around but nine times out of ten they are there because somebody called them for a reason."

Claire said there was a sergeant and two gardai in the village a decade ago when it was a lot smaller, yet now they don't have any.

"This village is growing, every week there are people moving in. When we had a sergeant and two gardai a decade ago, the village was a lot smaller. It is a lot more built up yet now we don't have any guards. It just baffles me. We have a right to feel safe in our own village and the neighbouring villages, it is not just Ballivor. I'm doing this for all the local villages and towns that have been affected."

Up to 60 people attended the protest organised by Ballivor Community Council on Saturday including Meath West TDs Peadar Tóibin of Aontú and Sinn's Johnny Guirke and local councillors, Aontú's Dave Boyne and independent Noel French who all spoke. Community Council Chairperson Niall Spellman also spoke at the protest. Aontú Leader Deputy Tóibín condemned what he described as a "shocking crime spree" and pointed out that the four areas affected had no functional garda station.

"On an individual basis, families and businesses have had their premises smashed up and money stolen. This is a big hit and will take time to recover from. But this is also an attack on the communities of these towns. People have a right to live in peace and not be in fear of ever increasing crime."

He added that Meath has the lowest per capita number of Gardaí in Ireland which is reducing the Gardaí's ability to protect these communities and making them targets for criminals.

"This cannot be tolerated any longer. We need Garda stations in towns right across Meath reopened."

Local councillor Noel French said for the past 10 years he had been fighting for an increased gardai presence in Ballivor and all areas at Joint Policing Committee meetings adding that the JPC had been disbanded last June with no sign of a replacement. He said he wants to see a more visible garda presence and that all it requires is for the patrol car to drive up and down the street and for gardai to walk around on the beat every two weeks or every month.

Claire said their next step following the process is to set up a small committee and they will be visiting homes in the village with a petition calling for an increased garda presence.