Nightlife is becoming more aggressive and difficult to police due to the prevalence of cocaine, according to Galway’s Garda Chief.

At a meeting of the County Joint Policing Committee on Monday, Chief Superintendent Gerry Roche said it was markedly more difficult to deal with revellers under the influence of drugs compared to alcohol.

“It is not easy to police when someone is high on drugs,” said Chief Supt Roche.

“When someone is on cocaine, they are quite lively and they can get quite robust, and a lot of force has to be used. This means members of the public and gardaí get assaulted.”

He said this was an issue being reported by gardaí across the country, in what he referred to as ‘cocaine culture’.

“Nightlife and society are becoming much more aggressive across the country,” added Chief Supt Roche, something he said was wasting garda resources that could be better used elsewhere.

Figures provided to members of the JPC showed a year-on-year increase in the number of serious assaults, up 25% on 2021 to 96 last year. This also marked an increase on the pre-Covid figure of 85 for 2019.

Minor assaults were also up 10% last year to 339 from 308 in 2021 – and 293 in 2019. Cllr Liam Carroll (FG) said these were worrying statistics and should be a warning to those entering into physical altercations.

“One punch can create a fatality – people should be thinking about that before getting into a row,” he said.