PROPOSALS to designate the Tallaght area as a separate Garda division and increase the number of police riot-control vehicles are being considered by the Minister for Justice, according to security sources.
Mrs Owen met community leaders from the Dublin suburb in February and a neighbourhood watch group last week. She is considering a proposal to grant Tallaght area full divisional status, taking it out of the Dublin Garda metropolitan area.
Mrs Owen is also believed to be considering approving more four-wheel-drive jeeps, usually Isuzus, used by gardai for crowd control.
Tallaght Garda station has two lsuzus assigned to it and similar vehicles are used in other "trouble" suburbs. As a separate division Tallaght would be controlled by a chief superintendent, and have its own allocation of vehicles and other resources.
"It would be a recognition that Tallaght in itself is a small city. It would be up to the Garda Commissioner to deploy the resources," according to a security source.
The Minister of State for Commerce, Science and Technology, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said he had suggested to the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, yesterday that Tallaght be made a separate division.
He said he also recommended the "deployment of community police in the areas affected.
Tallaght is now a larger conurbation than Limerick and therefore requires the priority in terms of organisational structures and resources warranted by that density of population and social problems." Mr Rabbitte said.
The Government is facing public pressure in advance of the election with an increase in the number of stolen car incidents, the deaths of two teenagers in Cork and the Easter weekend disturbances in Tallaght.
Residents in Tallaght have accused gardai of allowing the problem to get out of control. Gardai said they were doing their best with the resources available.
A senior garda said yesterday a 15-year-old boy blamed for the weekend trouble in Tallaght was still "unlawfully at large" and was believed to be in the area.
The boy absconded from an outing from Trinity House in February and residents said he was at the centre of disturbances on Sunday night when four gardai were injured by a crowd of youths throwing stones and bottles after responding to reports of stolen cars.
The boy was sentenced in February to two years in Trinity House for armed robbery, less than two months after his 15th birthday.
"We feel that if he was taken away from the area we'd be a long way towards solving the problem," a senior garda said.
"The situation is quite manageable and we'll certainly get on top of it."
On Monday night there was further minor trouble, when two petrol bombs were thrown in the Knockmore Avenue area of west Tallaght.
There was no major damage and no one was injured. A stolen car was later driven into the area.
"It was nothing near the same scale as Sunday," the garda said.
