A HEATED meeting of the Joint Policing Committee in Tralee on Monday night heard a call for an all-out effort from gardaí and the State and "a blitz on the few" who were giving the town a bad name.
The meeting also heard how Tralee is being looked at at a national level as an example of a town where late-night public order offences have fallen after gardaí succeeded in getting late-night club and pub opening hours cut in the local District Court.
The move by Tralee superintendent Pat Sullivan and Sgt James Foley in late 2006 came after the town council, under pressure from vintners, backed away from introducing council bylaws imposing earlier closing times.
Supt Sullivan told the committee he was aware that proprietors of some late-night premises were not acting responsibly and were attempting to hide from the Garda assaults that occurred in their premises late at night. This involved bringing the victims to hospital and using their insurance to pay the victims, "and the gardaí are not involved".
While public order offences were down by 9 per cent, after the half hour reduction in late-night openings (from 2.30am to 2am) serious assaults were on a par with last year, he added. There had been a 10 per cent decrease in drink-fuelled late-night public order offences and he would support moves to cut opening hours of late-night chip shops.
The Tralee Taxi Association which has lobbied for extra gardaí since 2005 to stop vandalism and attacks on their members, said late-night violence was a huge problem.
Other "Saturday night images" shown by chairman Anthony Dineen included shots of shrubbery upended outside the courthouse, hanging baskets torn off town centre shops, and severe damage to a taxi after it was attacked with a traffic cone.
However, mayor of Tralee Miriam McGillycuddy stepped in to prevent the full presentation, saying the taxi drivers' images - with people urinating on the streets, glass being smashed and taxis being surrounded as well as groups of gardaí trying to contain crowds - would contravene the Data Protection Act. She complained of the town's negative image, saying positive things were also happening in the town.