Knocknacarra the target of anti-social crackdown

For the first time ever, the Council will have specific powers to deal with problem teens – and can bar them from all properties (except their own home) and open areas owned by the local authority.

It’s expected that Knocknacarra will be one of the first areas to be targeted by the local authority, because of the dramatic increase in crime and anti-social behaviour there.

For the past two years, local authorities in Ireland have effectively been ‘toothless’ when it comes to anti-social behaviour and securing evictions from Council estates, because of European law on human rights.

Next year, the Council will effectively be able to ask a court to bar a ‘problem’ person under the age of 17 from loitering practically everywhere except their own home.

Liam Hanrahan of Galway City Council’s Housing Department told the Connacht Sentinel that the former Housing Acts were incompatible with European law, and the ability of local authorities to evict a tenant based on anti-social behaviour had been “non-existent”.

“There are individuals we’d like to have gone now, at least half a dozen that are causing serious problems,” said Mr Hanrahan.

The new legislation will mean the Council can go to court to seek an exclusion (eviction) order against a joint tenant – this means that in a family, for example, the ‘troublesome’ parent can be barred from the house, while the rest of the family can remain.

While Gardaí previously had to receive a formal complaint that an excluded person was back in a property unlawfully before they could act, next year, they will be able to arrest them on the spot for breaking the exclusion order.

So far this year, there are understood to be in the region of 200 complaints to the Council for anti-social behaviour.