Committee airs drugs concerns

WHAT EFFECT Brexit will have on Rosslare Europort, particularly when it comes to drug detections, was of particular concern for councillors at the recent Joint Policing Committee meeting in Wexford County Council.

Cllr Robbie Ireton was the first to voice his concerns over what impact Brexit would have on the port, as he wondered if there would be any extra garda presence there. Garda Chief Superintendent, Patrick McMenamin, who was welcomed to his first JPC meeting at the beginning of proceedings, said that Brexit posted challenges for everyone, admitting that the port did need policing and that there was a review of thus being carried out at the moment. He said they would examine that report and their resources but until then their approach was somewhat uncertain.

‘We’re as much in the dark as everyone else,’ he remarked.

However, Cllr Ireton was not finished making his point, saying that there was not enough gardai in the district and voicing his belief that a dedicated drug task force was needed both nationally and locally.

‘We have been lucky at times with drug seizures but they’re only a fraction. We need to sit on it hard because it’s getting way out of hand.’

Cllr Davy Hynes agreed, telling the new garda chief that he would soon realise that Wexford was ‘the forgotten county’, adding that the port was underdeveloped and he was concerned by that.

Cllr Ireton was hopeful that extra gardai would be assigned to Wexford and a drugs force could be established.

He added that, in many cases, drug use was a case of young people experimenting. He believed that prosecutions in cases like this were a waste of gardai and court time and wondered if it was time to change the way such first offences were dealt with. He believed that for the first or second offence, a person should not be hit with a criminal record that would, subsequently, prevent the person from travelling to certain places or taking up certain jobs.

‘But on the third offence, the drugs are off then,’ he added.