A TRAVELLER triage health clinic is to operate in the town of Rathkeale over the Christmas period to cater for an influx of Traveller families in the town the HSE confirmed this week.
Authorities expect Rathkeale’s population will double in size over the festive period as thousands of members of the Traveller community flock to the Limerick town to meet up with relatives and get married, as is traditional around the Christmas holidays.
Meanwhile, four extra Gardaí are to be deployed to the town to keep the peace over the festive period.
Efforts to maintain a safe Christmas in the town this year is being supported by a €200,000 package financed by Limerick City and County Council, with additional speed ramps in the town, extra personnel to clean up the town, and a full-time enforcement officer.
A HSE statement sent to the Limerick Post said the Rathkeale Traveller Health Triage Clinic will open on December 16 and run throughout the holiday period (excluding December 18, 19, 20, and 25.
“The clinic is set up to provide services for clients with established entitlement for services under the GMS Scheme e.g. valid medical card holders, GP Visit Cards, EHIC cards (issued outside of Ireland) or NHS card holders,” the HSE said.
The HSE added that the clinic would provide “face to face nursing triage followed by GP consultation and treatment/referral as required”.
It will be staffed by one nurse and one general practitioner, as well as a security guard who will be present on site.
The HSE confirmed that the cost of to operate the clinic for the 12 days was €14,184.23, including cost of GP cover (€12,000) and security services (€2184.23).
In the run up to Christmas period last year in the town, a garda car was rammed, weapons were recovered by Gardaí at a local property, and a mobile home was broken up by men wearing balaclavas and armed with slash hooks.
This year Gardaí have deployed four additional officers to support three local Gardaí to help maintain peace and monitor groups, according to chairman of the local joint policing committee, Fine Gael councillor Adam Teskey.
“There will be a special emphasis with regards to roads policing and, if needs be, the public order unit are available and there will be an increased vigilance throughout the Christmas period,” said Cllr Teskey.
Mr Teskey said the Christmas plan for Rathkeale was being “supported by a package that’s been financed by Limerick City and County Council to the tune of €200,000.”
Mr Teskey said that if armed Gardaí were required again this year in the town, they would be provided by An Garda Síochána.
“We need to make sure calm is maintained this year – but the town is open for business and we have a thriving community and people should not feel afraid to come in and do their day to day business, we are a very welcoming community.”
However, he said, Garda resources are a major issue.
“Christmas is Christmas but I do believe that we have a problem with resourcing An Garda Síochána as a whole in both Limerick city and county, and apparently of the 150 Garda recruits that are being expedited through Templemore on Friday, six additional Gardaí is what Limerick is getting.
“There are nine Gardaí currently on suspension, and between retirements and promotions, the Gardaí on the street on the beat are way under resourced. We want more Gardaí, we could badly do with them.”
Gardaí did not respond when asked for details of its Christmas policing plan for Rathkeale.
