GARDAI are asking parents to take personal responsibility for their children when dropping them into town and collecting them during the Rose of Tralee festival.

The gardaí say they are especially going to be tackling anti-social behaviour with the large groups of young teenagers who have been gathering at the big tree near Siamsa Tíre/the entrance to the Brandon car-park.

This area is going to be cordoned off this year, gardaí say they will not tolerate any large gathering of teens and there will be a clampdown on underage drinking in that general area.

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Gardaí are asking parents to collect their children at a reasonable hour. Any parents with small children are also asked to put their phone numbers on their child’s hand on the off-chance that they become separated from them in a crowd.

Parents are asked that to advise their young children before heading to town that should they get lost, they should find a guard and tell them. They are also asking people to keep an eye on their personal belongings while in large crowd situations and not to leave valuables on show in their cars.

There will also be extra drink and drug-driving checkpoints around the town during the festival. Finally they are asking businesses to be aware of counterfeit notes in circulation around town lately, especially €50 notes.

If they come across the notes they are asked not to return them to the person, but to retain them and contact Tralee Garda Station.