Varadkar ‘very worried’ about carjackings

Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar has said he is "very worried" about a spate of carjackings in the last number of months.

Mr Varadkar today said he would hold discussions with gardaí and Minister of State for public transport Alan Kelly about the incidents.

“I’m very worried about it actually myself. Carjackings are not something that happen commonly in Ireland but there have been five in the last couple of months, some affecting taxi drivers others just affecting ordinary motorists,” Mr Vardakar said.

“So it’s something I’m going to have to talk to Alan Kelly about, he’s the minister with responsibility for the taxi industry, and as well as that I need to talk to the gardaí about it too.”

Mr Varadkar said a ministerial-level road safety committee met every few months and he would ask for carjackings to be on the agenda for the next meeting.

The Minister was speaking at Government Buildings this morning, where he launched planned new legislation on clamping.

There have been five relatively high-profile and often violent incidents of late, most of them in Dublin.

A pregnant woman was assaulted in an incident near Mountjoy Square in Dublin.

In another incident, a female passenger was injured when four men involved in a collision with a bus in Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, stole a black Mercedes after it had stopped to lend them assistance.

The apparent surge has been dismissed by Conor Faughnan of AA Ireland as a coincidence. However, Mr Faughnan said car protection measures could help reduce the chances of such incidents occurring.

These include driving with car doors locked and not leaving valuables within reach through partially opened windows. Using a key fob to unlock car doors should only be done when beside the vehicle, Mr Faughnan added.