Letter to Editor – ASBOs
The Editor,
Letters Page,
The Irish Times,
D’Olier Street,
Dublin 2.
Dear Editor,
In the unique condescending tone reserved for some Irish Times Columnists and most RTE Broadcasters, Joe Humphreys (Irshmans Diary 14th May) berates the Political Parties for being open to the idea of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders.
As someone involved in Youth Work circles for most of my life and as an elected representative for many years I found his remarks, unfair, unfounded, unhelpful and simply wrong. Young people are as much the vitims of anti-social offenders as perpetrators and deserve to be protected.
Unfortunately, in my view, it is not that Politicians have failed to listen to the sociologists and other (often self described) “Experts”. It is that they have been listened to too much. Nothing beats the experience of “working on the ground” with dfferent sectors of our Society. If the opionated commentators tried a little more of that, their columns and broadcasts might have more sense than nonsense.
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Dermot Lacey
