Lives at risk due to border ‘anomaly’

Gardaí say lives are being put at risk because armed officers are unable to carry their weapons across the border into Northern Ireland on the Concession Road.

The A3-N54 Clones to Cavan road connects Coleman’s Island, an area consisting of 16 townlands that are part of the Clones Garda Sub-District. Vehicular traffic can only access Coleman’s Island by entering Fermanagh first.

While gardaí are allowed to travel, currently members of the Armed Support Units and Detective branches attached to border divisions are not issued with ‘blanket authorisation’ or International Firearms Cards and cannot attend incidents.

In a motion tabled by rank and file from Cavan-Monaghan at the annual Garda Representative Association (GRA) conference, taking place in Mayo, officers are now calling on the Garda Commissioner and Minister for Justice to put in place the necessary protocols to allow them police effectively.

The motion states that in the last four years alone there have been ‘a number of dissident paramilitary attacks on Northern Ireland Security forces and other armed incidents, which have required the assistance of armed members from An Garda Síochána requiring them to enter Coleman’s Island to attend these incidents and/or secure border crossing points’.

The incidents referred to include a series of security alerts that occurred in the Wattlebridge Road area of Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh, close to the Border in 2021, following which an allegation emerged that rounds were discharged using a high-powered rifle at a police helicopter.

The PSNI later said that no police aircraft was deployed to the area at the time the claim referred to.

It follows another incident in August 2019 where the Continuity IRA attempted to lure police to their deaths when a ‘no-warning’ device exploded as officers were investigating a separate security alert, again at Wattlebridge.

It has previously been raised in the Dáil the need to find an agreement to support the movement of security forces, including offering the authority to enter opposing jurisdictions to make an arrest.

Garda James Morrisroe, Cavan-Monaghan Divisional GRA representative, describes the existing border distinction as an “anomaly”, and agrees with the sentiment of the motion that, without protocols in place, it means there are areas within the State where ‘members of the public are being exposed to danger’ by not receiving an ‘optimal response’ from the gardaí.

He told the Celt: “It’s essential that all armed gardaí attached to border divisions are authorised to gain access to Coleman’s Island or are issued with International Firearms Cards permitting them to access Coleman’s Island through Northern Ireland to attend incidents. You have an ASU 15 minutes from the border and they can’t go across. But because there wasn’t an ASU here before this, it has never really been a problem, until now.”

Such an allowance, Gda Morrisroe says, would allow for “quicker response times to serious and sometimes critical incidents. It would also negate the necessity for members of the ERU to travel from Dublin to attend these calls unless their support is essential”.

Also on the agenda for discussion at the GRA conference is the subject of mandatory minimum sentences for attacks on frontline emergency workers, and for the Government to expedite the issuing of body cameras and tasers to all gardaí.

Another issue is the increasing number of gardaí leaving the force prematurely, either through retirement or resignation.

Pressure on manpower

According to the latest figures the total number of gardaí in the Cavan-Monaghan division currently stands at 378 (March 31). However, there has been a number of retirements in recent months and Gda Morrisroe says this is “putting pressure” on other areas of policing in the locality.

“There is an attrition rate. When you have members going off injured and sick as well it’s putting pressure on the members being left behind. There are a lot of retirements as well, in the Cavan-Monaghan Division specifically in the past three to four months, and that’s going to continue this year because about 30 years ago you had a huge number taken in and they’re hitting [end of service].”

Since 2015, the government claims civilianisation of staff within An Garda Síochána has freed almost 900 Garda members from back-office duties nationwide to return to front-line policing.

Gda Morrisroe believes that number is “over-inflated”, and says: “Our experience is civilianisation isn’t working. It hasn’t freed up guards from administrative roles. We still have members stuck in front of computer screens ticking boxes.”