National Rural Safety Forum Will Help Tackle Rural Crime
The newly established National Rural Safety Forum is a positive step that will help in the fight to eradicate rural crime. This was the message from IFA Deputy President, Richard Kennedy (co-chair of the Forum) speaking at the launch in the National Ploughing Championships, today (18th September).
IFA Deputy President Richard Kennedy said, “Ongoing engagement between An Garda Síochána and IFA on rural safety and rural crime highlighted how dominant the issues of rural isolation, fear of crime and lack of support were in rural Ireland. We agreed that a national collaborative effort to address this was badly needed. Today is the formal launch of this effort, the National Rural Safety Forum”.
He pointed to a number of recent convictions in North Dublin for lurching (resulting from the work of a joint community and policing initiative) as evidence that this type of co-operation works.
“This is proof that when the local gardai are properly resourced and engaged with the community it greatly increases its ability to fight crime. The launch of the National Rural Safety Forum will help deliver this style of multi-agency co-operation around the country. We strongly believe that this will reduce crime and ensure rural people can start to feel safe in their own homes. We look forward to working with all parties to ensure this Forum is a success.”
