Text alert funding is available for groups in County Louth

FINE Gael Louth TD, Peter Fitzpatrick, has said that new funding for Garda Text Alert Groups, will help support crime prevention in Louth.

Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald last week announced that the funding for the Community Alert Programme has been doubled to €350,000 and now incorporates a new €100,000 rebate scheme for local groups registered under the scheme.

He said funding will go directly to local groups here in Louth and encouraged Text Alert groups here to apply to Muintir na Tire for the rebate as soon as possible and at the latest by the end of October 2016. Applications can be made by completing a simple form which is available at muintir.ie/Text-Alert-Rebates/ or on request from rebates@muintir.ie or by calling Muintir na Tire on 062–51163.

Mr Fitzpatrick said: ‘ The Gardai have made huge progress since the launch of Operation Thor last year and we have seen a reduction of one third in burglaries nationwide.

‘We now have specific legislation to deal with repeat burglary offenders and particularly the organised gangs who have targeted many rural communities here in Louth and across Ireland.

‘Our party is committed to supporting communities across Ireland and I am committed to ensuring that the support is felt here in Louth. We are working to ensure that the economic recovery, which is now underway, reaches all parts of the country and the benefits are felt inside every doorstep and in every community’.