'No evidence' to suggest terror threat in Limerick, says garda chief

THE recent terrorist attacks in London and Manchester will be discussed at a meeting of the Major Emergency Management working group later this week.

The working group which includes representatives of Limerick City and County Council, An Garda Siochana and the Health Service Executive meets regularly to review and update the Major Emergency plan for the region.

While the recent terrorist attacks will discussed on Friday, the head of the Limerick garda division says there is nothing to suggest Limerick will be targeted by terrorists.

“First and foremost there is no intelligence whatsoever to suggest that Limerick is in line for an attack or is imminently in line for an attack,” Chief Superintendent David Sheahan told members of the Limerick Joint Policing Committee.

Chief Supt Sheahan says gardai across the city and county are working with and interacting with minority communities regularly and that a particular focus has been placed on the Muslim community.

“Community gardai are dealing with members of the Muslim community on a near-daily basis to alleviate their fears and to ensure they can integrate into our society,” he said.

When asked about the ability of gardai to respond to any potential terror incident, Chief Supt Sheahan says he has full confidence in members of the force. 

“I will say is that Limerick is probably in a greater state of awareness and readiness than most other places because we have had to deal with a lot of serious crimes over the last number of years,” he said adding that there are a significant number of armed gardai in Limerick.

“With the advent of the (armed) regional response unit that’s currently attached to Limerick plus the fact that I would have a bigger proportion of people, within the (garda) division, who are trained in the use of firearms all-in-all I would have to say that we are probably in as good a position as we can be,” he insisted.