Gardaí on mountain bikes are to become a daily feature of life in Killarney National Park. Plans are being devised to tackle what has been described as a worrying increase in underage drinking parties in the popular demesne area of the park adjacent to the town.
The park, renowned for its tranquillity and most often pictured as a place where the horse and jarvey carriage reigns, is visited by over a million people each year. While incidents are very few, they are disturbing, park management has said.
There has been a rise in teenage drinking, organised through social network sites, taking place in off-beat areas of the park under specific trees.
Huge numbers of bottles and cans were recovered by wardens and park management in the past days, according to park management.
Pat Dawson, regional manager with the National Parks and Wildlife Service, visited the scenes of some of these bottle piles and said he was taken aback at the number of bottles recovered.
Garda Sgt Dermot O’Connell of Killarney station said the park was now so popular it demanded more than fire-brigade type intervention and regular policing was demanded. Motorbikes and cars would be inappropriate, and mountain bikes would be used by gardaí on patrol.