Company at centre of billboard concerns raised at Carlow's Joint Policing Committee meeting has apologised and says it'll work harder on clearer communication

The company at the centre of the Carlow billboard controversy has apologised and says it’ll work harder on clearer communication going forward.

The county’s Joint Policing Committee meeting earlier this week heard how the advert claimed there had been 211 burglaries in Carlow in the past year with Supt Anthony Farrell noting that he understood that figure included such incidents in Kilkenny.

Council Cathaoirleach Andrea Dalton, who was quite vocal at that meeting on this topic, joined us on The KCLR Daily the following morning to outline her concerns – hear that here.

KCLR had contacted the company involved and received the following statement;

“Throughout November, PhoneWatch ran a nationwide radio and outdoor campaign highlighting burglaries at a national and local level. For the burglary volumes we always refer to the burglary statistics published by the Central Statistics Office and the associated Garda divisions in which the figures correspond to. The burglary figure in the ad in question referred to the previous 12 months. We acknowledge that the figure referred to the Carlow and Kilkenny Garda division. Whilst we provide the source for all consumers to refer to, we acknowledge that we should have been clearer. Our intention is never to highlight the risk, but rather to remind people that there are measures they can take to protect their home, including securing it with an alarm.

Our media advertising agency worked with an established outdoor site partner to secure the sites nationwide and at no point highlighted a concern with the messaging.

At this point, the advertising cycle has come to an end and the posters will be removed over the coming days.

We apologise if the ad caused any confusion or worry in the Carlow/Kilkenny region and will work harder on clearer communication of these figures going forward.”

Cllr Andrea Dalton outlined her reaction to that statement on The KCLR Daily today – hear her conversation with our Brian Redmond here;