WEXFORD CO. councillor Mick Roche has renewed his call for the creation of a local government taskforce to tackle a crime wave in South Wexford.

He said: “Decent rural communities had been abandoned to fend for themselves as Garda resources continued to be too thinly spread across Wexford.

“The victims of rural break-ins and violence feel that they are on their own,” the Sinn Fein representative said, adding that: ‘Large South Wexford villages are now without Garda stations and Gardai are simply not visible.  This is not the fault of the force but rather the result of the harsh austerity policies of successive governments.”

Community alert groups are active in many areas, he said, and were doing their best to help protect their communities, and he believed there was an onus on local government to support these groups in every possible way.

“Last year I tabled a motion calling for the setting-up of a local government taskforce to do just this. My motion was referred to the Joint Policing Committee where it has sat in limbo ever since.

“As communities we need to show local and national government that this crime wave is not just a burden, but a crisis that needs to be tackled now.”

On Friday night, concerned citizens are invited to attend a vigil at the community field in Bridgetown at 7 p.m. Cllr. Roche hopes that this will help to send the clear message of “We need help now.”