The latest spate of rural crime led to calls for additional gardaí at a meeting in Co Offaly on Monday and in the Dáil on Tuesday.

The meeting took place in Coolderry, near where farmer Richie McKelvey suffered a savage assault by burglars this month.

Joe Parlon, who chaired the meeting on behalf of the IFA, said Richie was recovering from injuries including bleeding to the brain.

“They beat him badly, locked him into a shed and left him to die,” said Parlon. “There was a lot of anger in the community over what happened.” More than 200 attended the meeting, including senior gardaí, local politicians and representatives of Muintir na Tíre who had helped set up two local community alert areas.

Chief Superintendent John Scanlan gave details of the new taskforce dedicating eight new gardaí to investigate criminal gangs targeting rural Laois and Offaly.

He also called on local residents to relay more information to investigators, after an ICSA survey published in last week’s Irish Farmers Journal revealed that farmers reported only half of the crimes committed against them.

Parlon and Sinn Féin TD for Offaly Carol Nolan accepted this but said they also want more gardaí on the ground.

There will be no hiding place in any part of rural Ireland for anyone engaged in criminal activity

Deputy Nolan said farmers were bringing loaded shotguns into their bedrooms and she feared an escalation.

Speaking in the Dáil on Tuesday, she and Fianna Fáil TD Niamh Smyth demanded extended opening hours for rural garda stations and called on the Government to simplify the application process for communities to set up CCTV systems.

Smyth said a similar series of robberies had taken place in her Cavan-Monaghan constituency around Cootehill, including the theft of equipment from a farming couple in their 70s and a family who came home to find a man carrying a hurley at their door while two others ransacked their house.

More gardaí on the ground

Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan expressed sympathy for Richie McKelvey and promised to continue increasing the numbers of garda recruits until 2021. However, he added that the local deployment of forces was a matter for the garda commissioner.

He also said a new database of forensic and DNA data would help investigators in the coming year. “There will be no hiding place in any part of rural Ireland for anyone engaged in criminal activity,” he said.

Minister Flanagan said Operation Thor had resulted in more than 6,100 arrests and charges and a decline in burglary numbers since its launch two years ago, demonstrating the “success” of such targeted action against rural criminals.

Read more

€15,000 worth of equipment stolen

Gardaí make rural crime arrests

Two men arrested by police at land letting