Struggling Ireland
It pains me to say this but there seems to a complete breakdown in law and order across Ireland. Especially at weekends. Our country’s police force was stretched during the boom years. With swingeing cut after swingeing cut in both resources and manpower since the economic crash the Garda Siochana have had their hands tied behind their backs when trying to deal with the rising tide of anti-social behaviour and crime.
These twin scourges have blighted every parish and there seems to be no tough response from our Government in the offing. Again and again there seems to be a revolving door at work in our justice system with those prosecuted seeing the light of day within days if not hours.
This menace to society and all we hold dear showed its ugly face once more last weekend in every village and town in the country. In any other year this growing problem of lawlessness would have been the number one issue on the doorsteps during the election campaign. That it wasn’t was mainly due to the fact that a vast swathe of our people are bent double under the weight of taxes; both direct and indirect.
It is ludicrous for any Government to mouth platitudes about reviving our domestic economy yet ensuring that at the end of the working week most people here have no spare money left to spend in their neighbours’ businesses. Wake up in Leinster House! This isn’t a difficult concept to understand. Relax the crippling stranglehold of taxation and other charges and let money begin to flow once more down the main streets of our county. And every county.