Gardai thank community and appeal for continued support with investigation
By Mary Dennehy
GARDAI are still on the hunt for those involved in last Friday’s attack on Lidl in Fortunestown Lane and are seeking the community’s continued support in providing information – particularly in relation to those responsible for stealing the digger and using it to bulldoze the discount store.
As the dust settles on last Friday’s events, which saw the local Lidl broken into, looted and substantially damaged by a robbed digger, gardai at Tallaght are working to apprehend all those involved in criminal activity that night – with ten men charged with various offences to date.
Tallaght Superintendent Ian Lackey
Speaking with The Echo this week, Tallaght Superintendent Ian Lackey stressed that while investigations into the incidents are ongoing, that officers are focused on supporting the community now and into the future.
According to Supt Lackey, a meeting was held on Wednesday, March 7, between the management team at Tallaght Garda Station and the Chief Superintendent – which has resulted in some “positive” news for the area in terms of extra resources.
“There was a meeting between the management team here at the station and the Chief Superintendent in relation to how we move forward.
“We have some positive news in relation to extra resources in the general area… and all I can say at this moment is that it will be from a community policing point of view.”
He added: “The investigation is continuing however, our work now is also about community support in that general area and how we can assist the community going forward.”
After last Friday’s events, patrols remained on site in the area, including detective patrols, and an incident room was established at Tallaght Garda Station.
“We established an incident room at Tallaght Garda Station and have had a lot of assistance from the community”, Supt Lackey said.
“There was also quite a lot of calls to our communal call centre last Friday and all of these people will be contacted.
“We have a lot of [CCTV] footage to also go through.”
He added: “We do anticipate that there will be more arrests and there has been a number of searches in recent days, with five or six searches [on Wednesday] in which property was retrieved.”
Gardai are now asking for people’s continued support in tracking down those responsible for the events last Friday, including those who committed burglaries and the people in the digger.
“Any help people can give us on would be very welcome, particularly on those who stole the digger and those who caused damage to Lidl with the digger”, Supt lackey said.
“We would like to thank people for their assistance so far and for looking after the gardai in the community over the weekend.
“Officers were very well looked after by residents, who were coming out with cups of tea for them over the last few days.”
Call the incident room at Tallaght Garda Station on 6666000, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.
TAGS Tallaght
