Limerick mayor warns of public safety impact from €660,000 funding shortfall for CCTV

There is mounting pressure on the Government to step in to close a €660,000 shortfall in funding for CCTV in Limerick amid concern that without the service there could be a return to the violence that has blighted the city in the past.

Mayor of Limerick John Moran “warned of the serious public safety consequences if the systems are forced to shut down for lack of funding” when he met Ministers on Wednesday.

In the Dáil Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Limerick City TD Conor Sheehan both raised concern at the risk of violence if the CCTV system is not fully funded.

In response Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that €660,000 is a “very realisable sum of money” and that the issue “should be resolvable” given funding increases to both Government departments and local authorities.

However, as yet, neither the departments of housing or justice has confirmed they will accede to the Limerick City and County Council (LCCC) request to provide the full funding needed for Limerick’s CCTV service next year.

Records released by LCCC under the Freedom of Information Act show that Moran and Cllr Tom Ruddle – the Fine Gael príomh chomhairleoir of the council – highlighted the CCTV issue in letters to Minister for Housing James Browne and Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan in September.

The letters set out how the local authority has maintained the CCTV service while pursuing a “sustainable multiyear funding solution” since the Department of Housing announced in 2023 that funding it provided would be progressively withdrawn.

Moran and Ruddle wrote that LCCC operates 353 community CCTV cameras. Of these 242 cameras are located in regeneration areas – disadvantaged parts of Limerick that have suffered from crime and gang violence – and almost all of these are monitored live.

They said the CCTV service costs around €1.21 million annually.

They said LCCC will provide €330,000 for the CCTV service in 2027 but Department of Housing funding will go down to €220,105, leaving a shortfall of approximately €660,000.

LCCC is also seeking €200,000 for “critical” CCTV hardware replacements.

Moran and Ruddle warned that the absence of a long-term funding solution “will endanger public safety, remove Garda resources from frontline policing, delay criminal investigations and prosecutions, and place further pressure on the administration of justice”. They added: “Responsibility for those consequences will rest with Government.”

Moran raised the matter at Wednesday’s ministerial forum meeting where Browne was among Ministers in attendance, and the mayor “asked those present to identify a clear mechanism to resolve the funding issue”.

In a statement Moran said: “Community CCTV has saved lives in Limerick. We cannot allow systems that protect our communities to be switched off because the funding is not there.”

A Department of Housing statement said it helped fund the CCTV service as part of the Limerick Regeneration Framework Implementation Plan but “this funding was committed to at the time on a ‘seed funding’ basis – it has been winding down since 2024, and will conclude after 2027.”

The statement said LCCC is “continuing to pursue a more appropriate and sustainable funding alternative, including with the Department of Justice and locally with An Garda Síochána, the latter which is the primary user of the CCTV.”

In the Dáil on Wednesday McDonald raised concern that the CCTV service could shut down two day before Christmas and describing the situation as “scandalous” called on Martin to intervene to make sure the community is “not left at the hands of violence and intimidation because you couldn’t come up with €660,000.”

Meanwhile Sheehan, who has raised the matter in the Dáil multiple times, expressed concern that “If we do not find a solution to this, we risk a return to a feud in Limerick.”

In response to McDonald the Taoiseach insisted the Government is “is supporting community safety very strongly” highlighting €4.84 million in funding aimed at helping communities become more resilient to crime which was recently distributed nationwide.

He said he would “get the backdrop to this [the CCTV situation in Limerick] adding: “€660,000 is a very realisable sum of sum of money and there’s no need for anything to close by Christmas.”

Martin told Sheehan he would talk to the ministers involved adding: “these issues should be resolvable, given the increased public expenditure in all Government Departments and indeed, towards local authorities as well.”