The manager of a McDonald's in Cashel, Co. Tipperary has sought help from a traveller advocacy group in relation to staff and customers being harassed there.
It is reported that Gardaí have been called to the M8 service area on numerous occasions due to claims of children as young as seven and eight vandalising restaurant bathrooms.
Maria Lyons, a manager at M8 Cashel McDonald's, told a local Tipperary radio station that children and young teenagers from a nearby halting site are also harassing staff and customers.
Maria says she had got in touch with the advocacy group, which helped temporarily: "We had agreements in place where if they stayed away for a certain length of time then they’d be allowed back in. It helped for a time but we’re back to square one now again,” Maria said.
As well as Gardaí getting involved to try and help, local politicians have also been lobbied to tackle the issue.
“Gardaí that we’ve spoken to weren’t aware of how bad it had actually got.
"It’s vandalism, breaking stuff in the bathrooms, locking themselves into the bathrooms. There is an element of harassing customers as well – there are some customers who might ring us a day later and say ‘I did not feel safe on your premises.’ But unless we know about it at the time and the Gardaí are called it's hard to fix it,” Maria added.
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