Central Area Policing Meeting

12th January, 2009

This morning I attended the Central Area Policing Committee. This group, of which I am a member, meets every 12 weeks to review policing strategy and issues for the constituency. In this meeting we discussed and took action on the following matters.

Firstly, traffic management plans for the O2. This new venue has a far higher capacity than the old Point Depot. Recent concerts have caused serious parking and traffic issues in East Wall, Castleforbes and the North Wall area. Dublin City Council agreed to invite the O2 management into our next meeting to review steps to deal with this problem.

Secondly, the Garda updated the group on the status of the prosecution of the tragic East Wall murder. I raised the need for increased Garda presence at all times in East Wall. I also followed up the status of an overall plan involving the Health Services Executive, the Department of Education and An Garda Siochana. The Garda authorities updated the group on the work of identifying a small number of potential offendors and focusing heavily on them.

Thirdly, I.raised house robberies in Cabra. I emphasised the scale of this problem in the meeting. The Garda have put in place a task force to deal with this problem. People have been charged over these offences. If there are ever issues that you want me to raise in these meetings please let me know.