Gardaí asked to investigate alleged racial abuse aimed at road workers

STAFF working on a road resurfacing project on the N15 at Rathcormac were subjected to racial abuse during the two weeks they were carrying out the work.

The contractor for the workers has reported at least one incidence of racial abuse to gardaí in Grange.

It’s alleged that one worker was called a “black bastard” by an irate motorist delayed in the traffic.

Separately a local councillor has claimed that other motorists broke a stop sign and red light forcing a worker holding up the sign to jump clear of the cars which were advancing directly at him, at speed.

A manager for the workers told local radio that the abuse shouted at workers on the project had taken him aback, such was the venom and content of what was being said.

“He described some of the language and abuse hurled at workers as “off the charts”.

During the road resurfacing phase on the N15 there were delays of up to 40 minutes experienced by some motorists.

However, the contractor doing the work said his firm had completed the job on schedule and that the likelihood of lengthy delays had been well signposted for several weeks before the project started.

Following the alleged abuse, it’s understood that workers were instructed by their line managers to note the number plates of cars where an occupant or occupants abused them.

These car registration numbers were to be passed on to the gardaí where abuse arose, the contractor told local Ocean FM last week.

Since then, Chief Superintendent Aidan Glacken, the most senior garda in the Sligo Leitrim Division, was advised of the abuse when he attended a meeting of the Sligo Leitrim Joint Policing committee last Friday.

Responding to Cllr Dónal Gilroy, who raised the alleged abuse, he said he could only comment that where offences or crimes have been committed they will be investigated and “whatever evidence can be gathered, will be gathered and it will take its course through the criminal justice system, if and when that is appropriate”.

Cllr Gilroy said he would ask where any engineering staff from Sligo

County Council might feel there is a threat, verbal or physical, to staff working on road projects, that they know the gardaí are waiting on the sidelines.

“If we do not nip this in the bud we might be dealing with a greater problem down the road, that would be my concern,” he said.

Cllr Gilroy said the contractor had been in touch with the garda sergeant in Grange as a result of the racial abuse meted out to some of his staff.

“I don’t care whether it is racial abuse, whether it is gender based or for any other reason, but to abuse anyone who is working for the Council, or working as a subcontractor for the Council or to a member of An Garda Síochána, that sort of abuse cannot be tolerated.

“I believe some of the number plates of drivers who were racially abusive were taken and I would beg that you [Chief Supt Glacken] put the resources in to follow up with them and, if you could, land them to court,” Cllr Gilroy stated.

He said he feared it would escalate from someone shouting abuse out a car window to someone emerging from a car with a knife or punching someone who will end up banging their head off the ground and suffering serious injury.

“We need to nip this in the bud. It is unacceptable to be abusive to anyone, whether they are white, yellow, green or black, it doesn’t matter, they are entitled to dignity in their work,” he said.