Careful preparation leads to largely trouble free St Patrick’s Day

Employment and Learning Minister, Sir Reg Empey, has welcomed the fact that yesterday’s St Patrick celebrations were, on the whole, trouble free in Belfast.

He said: “I am pleased the St. Patrick's Day festivities have passed off largely peacefully in the Holylands area.

“This is due to a lot of careful planning and preparation in the run up to the festivities. I would like, therefore, to commend Belfast City Council's Holylands Inter Agency Group for agreeing to take on a strategic oversight role in the development of the implementation plan, which clearly worked well today.

“The Group, which includes representatives from my own Department and others, as well as the Universities, Police, Retail Licensed Trade and residents, produced a plan which listed a number of additional measures including the introduction of CCTV, increased policing and wardens, and the presence of university staff and student representatives in the area throughout the day.”

Sir Reg concluded: “All the stakeholders, including the students themselves, are to be congratulated on their efforts to ensure we did not have a repeat of the scenes of St Patrick’s Day 2009. I hope this will prove the model for future years.

“However while progress was made yesterday, there is no doubt that the situation in the Holyland remains intolerable for the residents. The containment measures rolled out by the PSNI, the universities, the City Council yesterday offer only a temporary solution. Everyone will need to look at if there are other ways to resolve the problems which contribute to the Holylands in the long term.”

Notes to editors:

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