A government-sponsored tax incentive scheme which has led to an expansion of holiday home development in Lahinch, Co Clare, has been cited as a major factor for a doubling in prosecutions for public order offences at the resort. According to Garda figures, prosecutions have been instituted against 70 people arising from public order incidents in the town this year, compared to 29 prosecutions for the whole of last year.
Supt Pat Diggin of Ennistymon Garda station said the "figures speak for themselves". Gardai were continuing to give Lahinch special attention at weekends because of the extended season. In previous years extra Garda supervision at the resort finished on the third weekend of August.
The figures were worrying, he said, but were in line with national trends and did not involve any serious incidents.
In response to the figures, a meeting has been called by Lahinch community council with local gardai and the local community to address the problem.
The chairman of the council, Mr Pat Conway, said the expansion in development in recent years had made Lahinch an urban environment, with all the attendant problems, compared to the family resort it had been.
Mr Conway's contention is supported by Mr Donogh O'Loughlin, a member of the council who said the character of the area had totally changed since the advent of the Resort Renewal Scheme in 1995. This offered tax incentives to developers of holiday homes and other developments in Lahinch and 14 other resorts throughout the State.
Mr O'Loughlin said: "The holiday homes are attracting an element that did not come to Lahinch before and rents for the homes will further decrease as more are built."
Ms Mary Walshe, who has lived on Lahinch's Main Street all her life, said: "Lahinch has completely changed since the tax incentive scheme. It is not the lovely, friendly dignified village it once was and I'm heartbroken at the change."
However, a local publican, Mr Antoin O'Looney, said any trouble in Lahinch was not tolerated by either the gardai or the publicans and was "nipped in the bud". He said: "On my own premises, I don't tolerate trouble of any kind. The publicans in Lahinch work together in order to stop anything developing to ensure that people know that Lahinch is not a place that they come to cause trouble."
