https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/malahide-anti-social-behaviour-curfews-20524259Calls for curfews on young people to tackle anti-social behaviour in MalahideThe calls come after a video emerged of young people jumping on the roof of a car that was stopped at traffic lights in the villageBy Amy Donohoe
17:14, 4 MAY 2021 UPDATED 07:59, 5 MAY 2021
NEWS
Calls have been made to impose drinking laws and curfews in a north Dublin village to tackle a recent spate of anti-social behaviour.
The calls come after a video emerged of young people jumping on the roof of a car that was stopped at traffic lights in Malahide on Saturday.
It's understood a family, including a child, were in the car at the time.
In another incident, a teenager was assaulted in the village later the same day.
Social Democrats councillor for Howth and Malahide, Joan Hopkins, has called for more gardai on the streets and proposed a curfew on younger people as ways of tackling the persistent shocking behaviour.
"We have 40% less Guards in Ireland than the EU average, we need our Garda stations to open longer hours," she told Newstalk
"The fact that this particular incident, this most recent incident, happened right outside Malahide garda station, it would really kind of frighten you a little bit.
"What I'd like to see is more dedicated community police. Guards that are consistently posted to one station, that they're out and about, they're visible, they're getting to know the kids and the parents and the community.
"And youth officers as well - we don't have youth officers - so when they see a kid getting into trouble they can intervene, so that we're preventing these kinds of things from happening."
She suggested that Ireland should take note of Iceland's approach to anti-social behaviour.
"Iceland was seeing what we're seeing now... they had the highest levels of youth drug and alcohol abuse," she said.
"They've gone from the highest of 42% down to the lowest of 5%.
"They changed the laws: they brought in a new age limit for alcohol - you have to be 20 to buy alcohol in Iceland, they introduced curfews."
Meanwhile, secretary of the Malahide Old Village Residents Association, Nicola Byrne expressed the belief that it can’t just be down to gardai to find solutions.
"We have adults of all ages drinking on the street, urinating on the street and using our front doors as their own personal latrines," she told FM104.
"And then you're saying well it's all the kids' fault that we've got to this and actually it's not, it's from the top.
"We need to address it as a community.
"Malahide Forum, which is a residents body that represents 8,000 people in Malahide, has written to the gardai and the council and other residents associations saying we need a community plan."
