Driven to drink: Cork Superintendent hits out at parents dropping young people to drink in city centre

CORK CITY’s Garda Chief Superintendent has hit out at ‘irresponsible parents’ who drop their children into the city centre to go drinking.

Barry McPolin said gardaí have both anecdotal and concrete evidence of parents dropping their children off with drink to different areas of Cork City at weekends.

“Parents need to know where their youngsters are going and who they are with,” he said.

“We have evidence of parents dropping youngsters into certain parts of the city with alcohol with the purpose of socialising at weekends — and that is quite irresponsible and leading to a lot of the incidents over the last few weekends involving antisocial behaviour and assaults,” Chief Supt McPolin said.

There were issues with antisocial behaviour in the city centre on Saturday night involving large crowds of young people.

Additionally, Chief Supt McPolin said that gardaí in Cork City have issued more Covid-related fines than in Cork North or West.

“In general terms, the fines that were issued were greater than in Cork North or Cork West.

“There were quite an amount of parties taking place and gatherings in breach of restrictions.”

Chief Supt McPolin said Cork’s gardaí were utilising a “bespoke policing policy” for the summer months to keep on top of the trend.

“We are dealing with it and working closely with the community, parents, and the youngsters themselves.

“We are concentrating a lot of resources in places where people can congregate.”

Chief Supt McPolin said he could understand that people were finding it difficult after the long winter, but that public health was still the number one consideration.

“Infection can still spread and we will be out there in force.

“It will be a challenge for us, no doubt.”