Fine Gael councillor for Adare Rathkeale, Adam Teskey.
LIMERICK’S rural Garda Drugs Unit remains depleted of resources, allowing drug abuse and dealing to flourish, both Garda sources and one local councillor have warned.
Fine Gael councillor Adam Teskey, outgoing chairperson of Limerick City and County Council’s Joint Policing Committee (JPC), said the “drugs epidemic in the county” requires crisis intervention.
Cllr Teskey also claimed that a controversial new system whereby JPCs are to be replaced by Local Community Safety Partnerships is a “talking shop” and councillors cannot get access to up-to-date crime statistics.
“We have a situation where the drugs unit in Adare was actually depleted of its role and taken away at a time when drugs are a scourge across the country,” Cllr Teskey claimed.
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“Who in their right mind in An Garda Síochána or the government would take away the very resource you need to combat drug crime in our communities – this is bizarre.”
Garda sources also familiar with the situation said they are struggling to monitor and tackle drug dealing across the county due to depleted specialist resources.
“It absolutely falls at the seat of the government and we need to be proactively policing what is happening to our youth and our society – it is an absolute pandemic of a problem that is escalating and escalating,” added Cllr Teskey.
“Seriously, are the people at the top, at national level, that far distant from us as local representatives and local communities?”
As far back as 2023, Garda Representative Association member and former association president, Garda Frank Thornton, warned that the rural drugs unit was being “disbanded and reassigned to core frontline duties”.
Garda Thornton also claimed this would result in the “erosion” of Gardaí’s past efforts to develop intelligence and combat serous crime.
Cllr Teskey said the Limerick rural drugs unit does not have adequate resources to deal with the drug problem “which was highlighted when €20million worth of cocaine floated up the Shannon Estuary at Foynes recently”.
The Fine Gael councillor also added that the JPC in Limerick has not sat in over 12 months.
“We see the reasons now more than ever the need for community policing and community engagement and we (councillors) have been depleted from that role and Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan will have to seriously look at this,” he said.
“We need to be fully engaged with An Garda Síochána. They can better police areas if there is active engagement and we don’t have it.
“At our JPC meetings, we would get the exact figures in terms of crime rate and detection rate and where it emanates from in relation to drugs, road traffic offences, public order, violent crimes — we don’t have those figures now.
“The people of Limerick are looking for these answers,” he stated.
“As the outgoing JPC chairperson, I have not been communicated by one email over 12 months. That is disrespectful to the elected representatives of Limerick City and County Council, to me, and most importantly it is disrespectful to the public.”
Cllr Teskey suggested that “the previous model in AGS was quite effective because we were able to get access to the crime statistics that we needed to be able to lobby nationally for extra resources”.
“We need these Garda resources. Law and order must be prevailed and it must be upheld at all times and we are seeing that resource being depleted at a local level.”
On a visit to Limerick last May, the Justice Minster said he was working to try to provide an increased Garda presence locally, but that difficulties in recruiting were hindering that process.
He also said people need to wise up when it comes to taking drugs and take responsibility for their own actions.
