Vigilante groups may need to be formed to protect elderly people in west Waterford, a Fianna Fail county councillor has claimed. Mr Patsy Kenneally, in his final address as chairman of the council on Monday, said most robberies on the homes of the elderly were being carried out "by the protected species".
He said yesterday he was referring to "criminal elements of a particular group", but declined to be specific. "I got into enough trouble before," he said.
Mr Kenneally caused controversy in 1996 when he said Travellers should be "put out" of Waterford. "The sooner the shotguns are at the ready and these Travelling people are put out of the county the better. They are not our people," he said. He later apologised for the remark.
On Monday he told the council that for the past two months, "from the Blackwater to Helvic", house break-ins and theft were taking place every day. "The majority of these are being carried out by the protected species. Gardai can do nothing about it. They know who's doing it, but every legislation, everything is in favour of the criminal element at present.
"It's sad that elderly people can't open their door during summertime now in west Waterford, because what they have will be taken." Violence had not yet been used but if the situation was allowed to continue that would come, he said.
"And if it isn't going to stop, vigilantes will have to be formed, but unfortunately people are working in the daytime and it's in the day all these things are being done."
Garda Supt Michael Blake of Dungarvan said that in recent weeks up to 20 vacant houses in west Waterford had been broken into and, in "95 per cent of cases", fireplaces were taken. But he said there had been no increase of a general nature in robberies on people's homes and elderly people did not need to be afraid.
Some of the houses broken into were holiday homes and others were owned by people not living full time in the area. The crimes had occurred in areas including Ring, Clashmore, Aglish, Ballymacarberry and Newcastle. Anyone who noticed anything suspicious should contact Dungarvan Garda at 058-42370.
The apparently systematic theft of fireplaces, he said, was something gardai had not previously encountered, but the matter was being investigated and the suggestion that vigilante groups might need to be formed was "unwarranted".
