If trespass laws were adequate in this country, farmers and rural people would feel safe, Ryan O’Meara, Fianna Fáil TD for Tipperary North, told the Dáil last Wednesday.
O’Meara was referring to a meeting he had with 30 farmers in his constituency who reported repeated incidents of people entering farmland without permission, often at night, accompanied by lurcher dogs and using lamps or thermal scopes.
He told the Dáil that “the dogs on the street know what these groups are doing when they go onto farmers' land with their lurchers, with their lamps and, in some cases, with their thermal scoping”.
Referring to the meeting he had with local farmers, the TD said that one farmer claimed that the same individuals had returned to his land every week for five consecutive weeks.
“Another described a group whose lurcher caught a hare. The individual killed the hare in front of the farmer, then threatened the farmer and damaged fencing on his land.”
Safety, security and animal welfare
He added that a couple of weeks ago, a farmer claimed to him that he was threatened with a metal bar by an individual trespassing on his land and another reported to him that an electric fence was cut resulting in livestock escaping onto roads, and in one instance, an animal being hit by a car.
The Tipperary North TD said that these “are not simply disputes about access to land”, but are “matters of community safety, personal security and animal welfare”.
“They do not heed the farmers - and indeed, it appears, the local gardaí - when they are told to stay away but we know what they are doing there. They are scoping the land to see what can be robbed. That is what farmers tell me time and again.
“I do not accept the trespass laws are adequate in this country. If they were and if we had the Garda response times, the farmers in my constituency and rural people in general would feel safe. They would feel protected. I am not trying to be a fearmonger here, but this is real. It is palpable.”
He said that the law is failing rural people and called on the Minister for Justice to engage with the Garda Commissioner in relation to rural policing.
