South and East Belfast Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Ó Donnghaile welcomes East Belfast illegal firework seizure

Published: 24 October, 2009

East Belfast Sinn Féin representative Niall Ó Donnghaile has welcomed yesterday's seizure of illegal fireworks in East Belfast.

Mr Ó Donnghaile said,

"'There has been an irresponsible use of fireworks over the last number of years all of which has led to an increase in the fear of crime in the community. In east Belfast in particular this misuse has often manifested itself in the form of anti-social activity at interfaces.

'The reality is that thousands of fireworks are being sold illegally. In many cases the people selling these fireworks are deliberately targeting young people. In turn a lot of young people are using fireworks unsupervised and irresponsibly resulting in many cases in serious injuries. Indeed, the vast majority of those injured by fireworks have been under 18.

"I would, therefore welcome yesterday's seizure of a large quantity of illegal fireworks in east Belfast and would urge the PSNI to continue their work in tackling this activity."

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