WOULD-BE THIEVES torched a rental car on the streets of Dublin last week, destroying the €10,000 vehicle.

The car was part of the GoCar scheme, a car-sharing scheme that runs in Dublin and Cork.

Under the scheme, cars can be parked on participating cities’ streets free of charge. Late last Wednesday, one of the cars was left on Sir John Rogersons’ Quay in Dublin.

An attempt was made to break into the car, but when the immobiliser kicked in, the car was set alight.

Colm Brady, the managing director of GoCar, said that those responsible should “be ashamed”.

“In their frustration, the thugs obviously resorted to violence and set fire to the vehicle. The car is now completely written off and it has cost GoCar over €10,000. That is a bitter pill for any company to swallow.”

Brady says that the company was never hesitant about leaving the cars on Dublin’s streets, citing the example of the Dublin Bikes scheme, but says that the incident was disappointing nonetheless.

“Our streets are safe and well policed, however this isolated incident is really disappointing.

We have invested hundreds of thousands of euro to date and while we have 100 per cent faith in the long term viability of the scheme, it was disappointing to have a car destroyed.

The company say that gardaí have told them that they are reviewing CCTV in the area and an investigation is ongoing.

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