Harris: Hard border would just play into the hands of dissidents
‘Inconceivable’ Brexit will end security co-operation
GARDA Commissioner Drew Harris has warned that dissident republicans would ‘undoubtedly’ try to use border checks to rally support if there was a hard Brexit.
Mr Harris cautioned yesterday that a hard border on the island would create an ‘emotional driver’ that violent dissident republicans would seek to exploit to drive a terrorist campaign.
However, Mr Harris and Police Service of Northern Ireland Deputy Chief Constable Stephen Martin, speaking at a cross-border crime conference in Newcastle, Co. Down yesterday, pledged to find a way to continue the close co-operation between the police forces whatever Brexit deal emerges.
Mr Harris, when asked about the potential of an upsurge in dissident violence if new border structures and checks were a consequence of Brexit, said: ‘What we have to work at is to make sure that in effect, we don’t create the emotional drivers which they would try to tag on to in terms of driving a terrorist campaign.
‘It’s something they may wish to rally round; undoubtedly they will
Threats from organised crime
attempt to do that, but we have to make sure as policing organisations that we don’t create any form of emotional driver that they would want to tie into.’
Mr Martin said the policing landscape had been transformed from the days of violence that marked his early career in the 1980s and warned that a hard border would be a ‘backward step’.
He said: ‘I think a hard border, whatever that looks like, if it’s different from what it looks like now, will be a backwards step and I think people need to recognise that that backward step would bring complications and difficulties.’
Mr Harris and Deputy Chief Constable Martin stressed the importance of maintaining partnership arrangements that are currently facilitated by their respective jurisdictions’ membership of the EU. Mr Harris said it was ‘inconceivable’ that Brexit would bring an end to the close working relationship, while Mr Martin highlighted the need for a new legal framework to ensure ties would not be broken.
Mr Harris said: ‘We do require the legal underpinnings that would allow us to share information; vehicles like the European Arrest Warrant – all of those are important on the island of Ireland in terms of keeping people safe and the policing service that we provide,’ he said. ‘It is inconceivable to me that our co-operation is going to end in March; that is not going to happen.
‘What we will then have to work with is how we then find the legislative underpinnings which allow the exchange of information etc to carry on.
‘We will be working very hard to ensure we are protecting people on the border areas but also preventing crime as well in terms of organised crime and that will be our focus.’ Mr Harris continued: ‘No matter what happens after Brexit, we have to be aware of how the threat from organised crime might change.
‘Trying to pre-empt where the threats may emerge in terms of organised crime – obviously immigration crime, human trafficking – is part of that and it is a priority for both organisations.
‘Collectively, we want to make the island of Ireland a hard target for organised crime and international organised crime.’
Both senior officers were at the cross-border crime conference in the Slieve Donard hotel which outlined the threats and risks posed by organised crime gangs which operate across the border.
The conference comes days after a high-profile use of the European Arrest Warrant in Ireland.
Former IRA man John Downey, 66, was detained by gardaí in Co. Donegal using such a warrant following a request from Northern Ireland authorities, who are seeking to extradite and charge him with the murder of two soldiers in Co. Fermanagh in 1972.
Mr Martin said the PSNI’s partnership with the Garda was as strong as it had ever been but legislative underpinning was needed ‘so we benefit from a range of tools in our tool box’.
‘The European Arrest Warrant is the one that people most often talk about but [there is also] access to criminal records, the ability to share intelligence.
‘But whatever happens after Brexit at the end of March, we want the capacity and capability to do the same thing.’
He said the lack of certainty months from Brexit was ‘unhelpful’ but was ‘hopeful that a deal will produce the goods for us’.
Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said he stopped to look for the border on his way to the conference and had ‘difficulty finding it’. ‘I want to ensure that postBrexit, irrespective of the form that Brexit takes, that the border between north and south will be invisible,’ he said.
‘We have made too much progress in recent years from a political point of view, from an economic point of view and from a social point of view – so there’s no going back to a hard border.’
The Cross Border Organised Crime Threat Assessment Report 2018, which was released at the conference, stated that the economic upturn in Ireland in recent years had led to a resurgence in demand for ‘party drugs’ such as cocaine. The report examines issues including human trafficking, money laundering, rural crime, and excise fraud.
‘Hopeful deal will secure goods’