'No one wants Brexit, but we have to get real' - concerns raised over policing

Last November's Withdrawal Agreement had provided a detour away from the cliff face of an acrimonious no-deal divorce and a hard border.

'No one wants Brexit, but we have to get real' - concerns raised over policing

Last November's Withdrawal Agreement had provided a detour away from the cliff face of an acrimonious no-deal divorce and a hard border.

Now, with the fallout from the vote in Westminster, the road has entered dense fog and veered back towards that cliff.

Policing and security concerns have been well flagged, albeit in fairly general terms - given that most of the political talk has been about the imperative to avoid any hard border.

Last June, the annual conference of the Garda Representative Association heard that in the region of 1,000 additional gardaí would be needed to police a hard border.

There was criticism of a “lack of information about plans for policing the border” with GRA Northern Region representative James Morrisroe saying there was already an “intolerable strain” on existing resources.

Last August, the divisional officer in Louth, Chief Superintendent Christy Mangan said it would be “impossible” to man each of the 291 border crossings in the event of a hard border.

He said that trying to stop traffic on the M1 would cause “chaos” and that Brexit would “drain resources” from other parts of the country to police the border.

He said there would be implications for garda infrastructure with Dromad, a key border position, currently operating out of a portable building.

He added there were also concerns about the European Arrest Warrant (which allows for speedy extradition of people between member states) and data sharing.

As soon as he took the top Garda job last September, Commissioner Drew Harris said that continuing “police to police cooperation” after Brexit, even a soft one, was one of his primary concerns.

“How will we work with the Police Service of Northern Ireland?” he asked, “because regrettably with Brexit many of the criminal justice cooperation treaties in Europe will fall away and the UK will no longer be a member of those."

He said both countries had done well with these treaties, in terms of “sharing information and intelligence” in joint operations.

He pointed out that dissident republicans remained the “greatest threat” on the island.

He subsequently told the Oireachtas Justice Committee that he feared a hard border would be a “rallying call” and an “emotional driver” for dissidents.

He said there would be issues in gathering and sharing of evidence, an increase in criminality linked to the exploiting of tariff differences, with some of that money going to terrorists.

At the annual cross-border crime conference in November with the PSNI, the commissioner said dissidents would “undoubtedly” attempt to exploit a hard border.

PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Stephen Martin said that a hard border would be a “backwards step”.

Both police chiefs expressed concern for other security areas, including illegal immigration and human trafficking. They also said that new legislative arrangements would be needed to allow for the sharing of intelligence and suspects' criminal records as well as arresting suspects under the European Arrest Warrant.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said it was “absolutely essential” that there was a deal.

Concerns regarding the operation of the European Arrest Warrant have also been raised by the DPP Claire Loftus and Chief Justice Frank Clarke.

Ms Loftus said having an alternative system in place before the end of March was “crucial”, pointing out that the vast majority of EAW requests from Ireland went to Britain.

Official figures show that Ireland sent 60 (out of 76) requests to Britain in 2017, while Britain sent 207 EAW requests to Ireland (out of 357 received).

The British Home Affairs Committee said Britain's access to the EAW was one of its major concerns around policing and security cooperation, UK border operations and immigration.

It said the legal basis for extradition between the UK and Ireland 1957 European Convention on Extradition was “unclear”.

(At a security conference last month, EAW expert Barrister Anthony Hanrahan said there was no reason why Ireland could not negotiate a bilateral extradition agreement with Britain.)

In a report last December on the Withdrawal Agreement, the British committee said the transitional arrangements under the agreement (covering the period up to December 2020) were “vital”. It said that leaving the EU without a transitional period “would put security and border operations at significant risk”.

As well as the EAW, it said other major issues surrounded access to key EU criminal databases and continued cooperation with Europol, the EU police agency.

The GRA annual conference was told that deputy commissioner John Twomey was heading the Garda Brexit group. Little has emerged publicly about the work of this committee or what can be expected from a hard border.

Garda Morrisroe, GRA representative for Cavan/Monaghan, said that since the conference he has not heard of any information from Garda HQ about contingency plans for a border, hard or soft.

He told the Irish Examiner that both the Government and Garda HQ need to talk to frontline members in the Northern Division (which stretches from Donegal to Louth) regarding their contingency plans and what would be expected of members.

“No one wants it [Brexit], but we have to get real – we have to be ready.”

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