AS a matter of urgency a meeting of the Limerick City Joint Policing Committee will shortly be held in camera with the Garda Siochana to discuss the problem of intimidation of families who own their own homes on those city housing estates designated for regeneration.
Cllr Joe Leddin claims that ongoing criminal activity and intimidation is leading to the clear- out of houses in these estates.
The councillor, who has previously spoken out against the threat that many families and elderly people have been living under during the past year, says that their constant fear for their safety has forced many to sell or abandon their homes and relocate elsewhere.
‘They just want to live in peace, and these are the same people who reared their families and spent money over the years improving and making their homes more comfortable to live in, but now, due to unbearable intimidation and attacks from criminals and young thugs, these same innocent people are forced to sell their homes considerably less than market value, just to escape a life of fear and distress,” Cllr Leddin told the Limerick Post.
Stressing how difficult it is to offer reassurance or hope ‘to elderly and vulnerable people when they say that, in their opinion, society and law and order has broken down completely,” the Labour councillor says the irony is that the exodus of these decent residents is in effect facilitating the regeneration process of demolition.
“We’re not making any progress whatsoever in tackling the fundamentally serious social problems that are rooted in these same estates, where the majority of people are trying to live their lives and rear heir families as best they can”.
The issue will be debated at a forthcoming meeting of the Limerick City Joint Policing Committee.
