Analysis: Election ensures rural crime stays on agenda

Rural crime is not a new issue, nor are the fears of gangs from urban centres roaming the countryside looking for isolated places to burgle.

In 1991, there was a furore over city-based criminals committing burglaries in rural areas. It happened again in 1995 when the Garda set up Operation Shannon, where checkpoints were set up on all major crossings of the Shannon to deter Dublin-based gangs from carrying out raids in western areas.

When such “crime scares” arise, there is usually a shocking incident that triggers it.

Last month, a 62-year-old man died of a heart attack in Doon, Co Limerick, when he confronted burglars leaving his house. Then, a woman in her 90s was violently attacked by robbers in her home in Bray, Co Wicklow.

Those incidents have led to crime being ramped up as one of the pressing issues facing the country. Rural TDs and Senators have anecdotal tales of clusters of burglaries (or attacks) in their areas committed by outsiders.

Reprisals

The Government has responded as you would expect them to with tough talking and the threat of severe reprisals. No political party ever went broke promising tough punishment for criminals. Fianna Fáil’s much-hyped “zero tolerance” policy helped it win the 1997 general election.

This time, Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has published the Criminal Justice (Burglary of Dwellings) Bill, 2015. It proposes to make it harder for recidivist burglars to make bail.

Fitzgerald justified the Bill on the grounds that Garda analysis showed 75 per cent of burglaries were carried out by 25 per cent of offenders. Intelligence also suggests a small number of sophisticated gangs using night vision have been making regular lightning raids, using the motorways.

To that end, the Government said CCTV cameras would be installed on motorways to help identify Dublin-based gangs targeting rural areas. Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Niall Collins went further and published a Burglary Bill that would have a mandatory sentence of three years for a first burglary offence.

As usual there is a gap between perception and statistics. There has been a small year-on-year increase of about 8 per cent. However, the figures have not changed dramatically over the 12 years and are lower now than in 2012.

When one examines the CSO database that lists individual Garda stations, there is little evidence to show any appreciable change in the past five years in rural areas. The vast majority of Garda stations show zero burglaries and there are not the kind of “spikes” that might be expected.

Ballinasloe in Galway has recorded between one and four burglaries over the past five years; Athy, Co Kildare fell from 13 to seven; Lismore in Waterford varied from zero to one; while Portlaoise fell from 15 to eight between 2013 and 2014.

At the same time the perception among rural communities that they are vulnerable to urban gangs is real. While the national pattern is steady, it seems some areas have suffered.

“There were six burglaries last week in the northeast part of Co Galway,” said Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice. “There was a lot of stuff swiped. It’s trailers, cattle, sheep. Near where I live, two innocent fellows got very badly beaten up one night.

“These gangs are coming in. There’s a crow on the wire giving them information locally but there’s no local guard to keep an eye on them.”

Vulnerable

Kildare South Fine Gael TD Martin Heydon said three motorways ran though his county and there was an anecdotal sense that “proximity to Dublin leaves us vulnerable” as “ease of access that allows them get back to populated areas quickly”.

Fine Gael’s Kerry TD Brendan Griffin said there was “not a massive spike” in rural crime but there were “some people politicising” the issue. He identified two problems that had been pinpointed by just about every politician interviewed, including Collins and Sinn Féin justice spokesman Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, namely the moratorium on Garda recruitment and the closure of 140 Garda stations.

“The bottom line is we don’t have enough gardaí and people don’t get a sense they are visible,” Griffin says.

The Government has pointed to 300 new recruits coming out of Templemore, 400 vehicles being provided, and additional resources for community alert initiatives.

The proximity of the general election will ensure rural crime stays on the agenda in the coming months.