Mayo residents 'left in fear' over 'baffling' prisoner housing model - TD
The communities of Knock, Balla and Crossmolina are now living with a level of anti-social behaviour, break-ins and thefts that would have been unthinkable only a short time ago, according to Mayo TD Paul Lawless.
He elaborated: "The sheer volume of calls, letters and messages I have received, mainly from Knock of late, from residents, particularly elderly people who now feel unsafe in their own homes, speaks to a deep and growing sense of fear.
"Many have shared video and surveillance footage, and the pattern is unmistakable: this is the direct result of a reckless and ill-considered government approach that has allowed local authorities to rely on opportunistic, landlord-led facilities for individuals released from prison with no fixed abode.
"I have written to three government ministers on this matter, and I have contacted the Minister for Justice, Mayo County Council, and every neighbouring local authority across the province and beyond.
"In each case, I asked the same simple questions: Why are you using a landlord-led approach? What risk assessment was carried out to protect the communities into which people are being placed?
"And now that it is clearly not working, not for the communities, not for the gardaí, and not for the individuals themselves, what justification remains for continuing this failed experiment?
"The answers from our local authority and Roscommon local authorities have been far less than satisfactory.
"We have already seen the consequences of this model in the former Railway Hotel in Ballinrobe, and now the same pattern is emerging in Knock, Balla and Crossmolina.
"It is not only Mayo's own local authority placing individuals into these unsuitable facilities.
"Roscommon County Council has also been sending people into places like Knock, adding to the pressure on a community that has already endured more than enough when they want to place them in their own county.
"And as if that were not alarming enough, I am now aware that one such landlord has identified a large venue in Claremorris, located worryingly close to two national schools, with the intention of expanding this model on an even greater scale. It is difficult to imagine a more inconsiderate or ill-judged proposal.
"The truth is that this system appears designed to benefit landlords at literally everyone else's expense.
"It places individuals with criminal histories together in unsupported, unstructured environments where reoffending becomes more likely, not less.
"It leaves communities, especially older residents, feeling abandoned and exposed. It burdens gardaí, who are already overstretched, with the inevitable fallout.
"And it offers nothing resembling the rehabilitation, dignity or structured support that people in these circumstances actually need.
"The policy seems based on the strange belief that if you put together two people with different offending histories, the risks somehow diminish. The logic behind this approach is baffling.
"That is not rehabilitation. It is a recipe for failure, for the individuals involved, for local communities and for already overstretched garda resources.
"There is, however, a better way, and it is not merely my own proposal. It is the approach described to me directly in my conversations with Galway County Council, which works with professional NGOs such as COPE to provide a professionally-led model.
"These organisations offer proper rehabilitation services, counselling, structured risk-assessment protocols, and a one-stop, professionally managed environment that offers better protection for the community while giving individuals a genuine chance to rebuild their lives.
"It is a model that treats people with dignity, respects the community, and reduces the burden on gardaí. In short, it is far more workable.
"The inconsistency in the government's approach is staggering. On one hand, they claim to prioritise community safety; on the other, they allow local authorities to outsource responsibility to landlords with no professional expertise, no oversight and no obligation to provide even the most basic supports.
"It is a policy so contradictory that one could be forgiven for thinking it was designed by two different departments who never once spoke to each other.
"As one resident in Knock put it to me: "If this is the government's idea of community safety, I'd hate to see their idea of danger."
"I will continue to work tirelessly until this failed, landlord-led model is brought to an end and replaced with a professional, humane, community-protective system, not only in Mayo, but across the entire country.
"We should be reinvesting public funds into professional NGOs such as COPE, Simon, the Peter McVerry Trust and many others who have the expertise, the structure and the compassion to do this work properly not the failed experiment if leaving it to landlords who benefit at everyone else's expense," he added.