Ireland: Why Is It Being Quietly Militarized

Sunday, April 22, 2012 11:14

Why is Ireland reducing the Police and increasing the Military?Justice Minister Alan Shatter has warned rank-and-file garda leaders against damaging relations with the Army in a row over recruits.

In a deepening fall-out, Mr Shatter called on the Garda Representative Association (GRA) to reflect on "unfortunate" remarks made during its annual conference. He said: "I'm very conscious there's a very good and close relationship between An Garda Siochana and the Defence Forces. I wouldn't like to see that relationship damaged."The association representing about 8,000 soldiers, sailors and aircrew of the Defence Forces, PDforra, has expressed its surprise at comments on the military from the Garda Representative Association (GRA) earlier in the week.

The comments by outgoing GRA president Damien McCarthy in effect questioned Minister for Justice and Defence Alan Shatter as to why Defence Forces personnel were still being recruited at a time when gardaí were not, because of the public-sector recruitment moratorium.

PDforra general secretary Gerry Rooney said he was surprised at the comments.

He said that while the Government had recently decided to recruit 1500 Defence Forces personnel, this was “long overdue” and came at a time when numbers were 700 below the agreed strength for the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps combined.In his address to Mr Shatter at the GRA’s annual conference in Athlone, Co Westmeath, on Tuesday, Mr McCarthy referred to the lack of Garda recruitment, saying: “Minister, it is remarkable that you continued to recruit members for the permanent Defence Forces. Is Ireland under attack? Is there a war we are about to join? Because we are under attack in the war on crime at home, right here in Ireland.”

McCarthy itemised reduced garda numbers, budget cuts and station closures as hitting the service. Delivery of service to the public has continued to be reduced, he added, and the minister's appointment had so far failed to have any significant impact on policing. Further, the members of the GRA "are rightly angered and feel betrayed by your shortcomings".

It was a hell of a broadside, coming as it did at the annual conference of the GRA, and the minister's reply was predictably and sharply offended: the comments were "alarmist and irresponsible", and devalued the work of McCarthy's own members.


McCarthy, for those of us old enough to remember, nicked the phrase about soft on crime from Tony Blair, whose initial prime ministerial broadside in Britain was that New Labour would be tough on the three elements. Leaving aside the fact that being tough on crime or otherwise is a fairly subjective concept, legislation is a slow process, and legislation is the only element of crime-fighting which a minister has within his jurisdiction, so maybe it was less than fair of Damien McCarthy to get so tough on Alan Shatter, who has been in office for only a year. There is only one way the minister could have made a significant inroad on the crime figures in such a short period of time: the enactment of a policy of "zero tolerance". And that has ostensibly been tried before, notably when John O'Donoghue was Minister for Justice, and he memorably said when the figures showed no noticeable improvement that it depended how you define "zero".

Before It's News