Chairperson of the Joint Policing Committee (JPC) Gerry McMonagle has condemned the recent decision to legalize gaming machines across Letterkenny and Inishowen.
Councillors on the Letterkenny and Inishowen Municipal Authority voted to controversially legalise the machines last month.
Inishowen Councillors voted in favour of the measure by five votes to four.
Letterkenny Councillors voted in favour by six votes to three.
Speaking at a JPC meeting on Monday in Lifford, Community Representative, Joe Boland, requested the condemnation of the recent decision, saying that ‘further problems lay down the line’ for the people of the respective communities.
“This matter isn’t directly linked to the JPC but I am asking if the board as a whole could write to the council districts and condemn this view and show our concerns for it?”
McMonagle, who voted against the motion for Letterkenny, said it was now a matter for the courts to deal with.
“The applicants can now put in a license to operate these game machines and the courts will decide whether they ae entitled to one or do they adhere to the regulations as set out,” McMonagle said.
“Personally, I voted against it and we have all been there when the campaign first arose in the 1980s and it is a road to nowhere,” he added.
“It is going to bring more hardship and more heartache for many families (across the county), but democracy is democracy.
“It was voted in and we have to accept that.”