A newly built New Ross estate has seen neighbours drive out a sex offender after online communications with supposed underage girls were exposed. A separate man of African descent is accused of inviting children into his car and throwing bottles of whiskey from a top-floor apartment. New Ross Municipal District councillor John Dwyer questioned Wexford County Council’s housing allocation process, saying some tenants received homes without sufficient Garda clearance. Housing officer Martina Donoghue stated that every applicant is sent for Garda clearance before allocation. Dwyer disputed this, arguing Garda clearance cannot be granted for someone who arrived from Nigeria two years earlier and that the incidents described indicate serious breaches of tenancy. Donoghue said the man may have been in the country longer and that applicants may be asked to provide their own clearance from their arrival country.
"There have been significant breaches of tenancy at that estate. There's been a Nigerian man inviting children into his car and a separate individual was driven out by the residents for online grooming incidents which occurred over a 15-year period. I fail to understand how these people were allocated houses."
"Defending the council's allocation policies, housing officer Martina Donoghue insisted that every applicant was "sent for garda clearance" before being allocated a property. Cllr Dwyer contested this statement. "The gardaí can not give clearance for someone from Nigeria who arrived in Ireland two years ago. They can't give a five-year garda clearance in that situation. This guy was drinking whiskey and throwing the bottles out of his top-floor apartment.""
"Aware of the tenant in question, Ms Donoghue said her understanding was that he "was in the country longer than two years" but that in some instances WCC would ask housing applicants to provide their own garda clearance "from whatever country they arrive from". This response merely emitted laughter from Cllr Dwyer."
Read at Irish Independent
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