Drew Harris: 'Very difficult' to plan future Garda strategies amid Brexit uncertainty
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has warned that the ongoing uncertainty over Brexit is making it "very difficult to plan" future Garda strategies.
He expressed concern that a No Deal Brexit could lead to the collapse of cooperation between the UK and Ireland when it comes to matters like extradition, assisting investigations, information sharing and tackling broad issues such as money-laundering and cybercrime.
Speaking at the 12th annual North-South Criminology Conference at UCC today, Mr Harris said that when he took the job 366 days ago, he never would have envisioned being this uncertain on the impact of Brexit a year later.
He told attendees at the conference that there is a real concern that cooperation between the two countries in terms of extradition and information sharing could "fall away" once the UK leaves the EU and, accordingly, existing agreements that are dependent on its membership.
"The Law Enforcement Directive will answer some of that but we are not going to have what we enjoy today," he said.
We are not even quite sure about what kind of Brexit the UK is going to deliver but we have made a commitment around making sure that the rule of law prevails in border areas. How secure those communities feel has been missed in some of this but it is a very important element.
Mr Harris identified the issue of large scale fraud and cybercrime as a pressing issue. He said that no single state has the capability to tackle it on its own and that the Europol and Interpol networks have proven essential and successful at doing so in recent years. He added that it is "hard to imagine" how policing would function without such a network.
Mr Harris, a former PSNI officer, also expressed his concern about the increase in violent activity in the border region, specifically referring to the recent attempts on the lives of several PSNI officers.
"I am worried about the upturn in attempts to murder PSNI officers," he said.
"We have had four already this year, up from very small numbers in each of the last two years. It is a clear upturn in activity. In terms of cause and effect, it is difficult to determine but it has to be dealt with and we have to be active. We are not bystanders in this, we are very active in our investigations to try and thwart those efforts. That is of concern at the moment."
