CCTV cameras are an aid and ‘a great deterrent’ but ‘they’re not the be all and end all’ Garda Superintendent Michael Comyns warned the recent meeting of the joint policing committee in Fermoy.

Mayor Michael Hanley explained that new high tech CCTV service is now available which covers a wider range and has sharper focus. He felt it would be tremendous for the town to have them, that it would send out a message that Fermoy is a great town to shop in and that it is safe and secure. Supt. Comyns said he’d be ‘all for it’.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

Cllr Tadhg O’Donovan struck a discordant note however, saying he’d proposed installing CCTV a few years ago as part of a national pilot scheme which was being offered to interested towns with grant aid provided.

“The headline in the paper the following week was that I was showing up the town for even suggesting them, so I’m delighted the mayor is mooting them now. If we’d been in at the start we could have been successful. There were only three applicants then. Still it’s better late than never,” he stated.

Supt. Comyns said monitoring of the cameras is very important for them to be effective. “You need someone to watch them,” he pointed out.