A senior garda said they recently intercepted a consignment of stolen outboard motors which was concealed under tonnes of clothing and were set to be smuggled out of the country in a container.

Chief superintendent Tom Hayes, who is in charge of policing in the Cork West Garda Division, told a meeting of the Cork County Joint Policing Committee that two other arrests had been made over foreign gang members who had been stealing other high-value products, which were also likely to be destined for resale on foreign markets.

He said these gang members typically came to Cork for two or three weeks at a time to carry out their crime sprees and the garda operation targeting them was still ongoing.

The meeting also heard the number of burglaries occurring in the city and county continues to fall. Between April and June 2015 there were 384 reported burglaries, but during the comparable period this year that has fallen to 197.

Chief Supt Hayes said much of this was down to Operation Thor, which specifically targeted criminal gangs who were coming into the region from Dublin and Limerick.

Thefts from shops were down from 625 to 521 cases and thefts of property from vehicles was also down from 193 to 130.

The senior garda said that garda patrols had targeted well-known beauty spots and walking areas because “opportunist criminals” were lurking in these areas and waiting to break into vehicles once their owners had left them.

He said he also credited motorists themselves for heeding garda advice not to leave valuable property in unattended vehicles.

The number of serious assaults in the region remains static, but minor assaults fell from 351 to 321 which chief supt Hayes said was good news, but a bit surprising as usually when the economy picks up there are more alcohol- related incidents.

He also described it as good news that there had been no murder recorded in the city or county between last April and last month.

However, he said the bad news was the increase in deaths on Cork roads.

During the three-month period this year he said crashes had claimed the lives of six drivers, seven passengers, two pedestrians, one motorcyclist and one cyclist.

Fine Gael councillor Kevin Murphy and Fianna Fáil councillor Frank O’Flynn told senior gardaí they were concerned with a recent rise in the theft of historic signs.

Mr Murphy said a number had recently gone missing in the Kinsale area, including one pointing the way to the famous 1601 battle site.

Mr O’Flynn said he was aware of similar incidents in north Cork and wondered if they were being sold to pubs abroad.