‘McEntee must cut ties with Harris’
Colleagues urge minister to distance herself from Garda chief
JUSTICE Minister Helen McEntee’s Cabinet colleagues are urging her to distance herself from the embattled Garda chief, who was accused by senior officers of presiding over a ‘gun shy’ force.
It comes as political confidence in Commissioner Drew Harris ebbs in the wake of disgraceful scenes outside the Dáil this week when a mob blocked TDs entering and leaving Leinster House.
Mr Harris is also facing a growing revolt among officers of all ranks over controversial plans to implement a new roster.
Within the Government, Ms McEntee is coming under pressure to assert herself over the Garda boss, in whom she has repeatedly expressed full confidence.
Cabinet sources pointed to previous Fine Gael justice ministers who fell on their swords because of policing crises.
One minister said Ms McEntee needs to ‘start distancing herself from Drew Harris’, whose future looks increasingly uncertain amid diminishing confidence in An Garda Síochána.
Another Cabinet member hit out at the ‘light touch, lacklustre and disjointed’ Garda response to Wednesday’s protests as elected representatives were temporarily locked into Leinster House.
Sources warned that the growing political and public criticism of the Garda chief
is causing ‘political contagion’ for Ms McEntee.
One minister told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘There is a need for the Minister for Justice to assert herself over An Garda Síochána. ‘There is a perception that she is too deferential towards Drew Harris. The history of Fine Gael justice ministers who fail to deal with a dysfunctional Garda management is not positive.’ Another source added: ‘The commissioner appears to be alienating everyone he comes in contact with. His own force have voted no confidence in him, large sections of middle management are becoming alienated by his style, and now that sh*tshow at Leinster House has alienated the entire political class.
‘The minister now needs to start showing her mettle. We are convinced Drew Harris is unsavable. It will be death by a thousand cuts for him as he
has alienated everyone. Helen now needs to start separating herself from the commissioner, slowly withdrawing support with a view to eventually sacking him.’
The source added: ‘As soon as the Budget [October 10] is over, the focus is going to be 100% on the Department of Justice.’
As the policing crisis deepens, ministers told the MoS that, for the first time, discussions have begun about ‘a timeline for the removal of the Garda Commissioner’.
A Cabinet source said: ‘There is a perception that the gardaí are now out of control, again, and that the commissioner is riding roughshod over the minister.
‘For a while we have felt that Helen is way too deferential to the commissioner. And by not condemning Garda management’s performance at Leinster House last week, she has damaged herself across Government.’
Another source added: ‘Justice is
a tough ministry. She needs to grow up a little as experience will show that criticism is going to come your way, and it’s about how you deal with it. Spin won’t win in Justice.’
Ms McEntee was not the only one in the firing line. An angry Cabinet colleague of Leo Varadkar’s said: ‘Leo said from New York, 3,000 miles away from the events, that we shouldn’t over-react.
‘As far as I witnessed there wasn’t a sufficient reaction from the gardaí at all. I don’t think anyone was overreacting. I have to say I found his comments very odd and non-empathetic when speaking of colleagues and ordinary workers’ safety.
‘I also note that the three party leaders remained in New York and weren’t rushing home to deal with an attack on democracy, or even to check on how their colleagues were,’ they added.
‘Leo is the Taoiseach and as such avails of 24-hour armed protection. I do myself, along with a Garda driver. But I’m telling you a politician is going to be killed. And it won’t be in Leinster House.
‘The worst situations I have faced have been in my constituency clinics where you are understandably dealing with deeply upset and sometimes unwell people. We have
to protect our colleagues. There is this element in Government to downplay things. But somebody will be killed. Even if that bottle had hit Michael Healy-Rae the other day we would be having a different conversation.’
In 2017, during Leo Varadkar’s last term as taoiseach, then justice minister Frances Fitzgerald was forced to resign over a series of Garda controversies. Her predecessor, Alan Shatter, suffered the same fate.
During that tumultuous period, two garda commissioners – Martin Callinan and Nóirín O’Sullivan – were forced to resign in the wake of what the latter described in her resignation statement as an ‘unending cycle’ of investigations
‘There’s a perception that she’s too deferential’
‘Gardaí are gun-shy about protests’
and inquiries.
Former PSNI deputy chief constable chief Drew Harris was brought in to reform the crisis-hit force.
Last week just under 99% of rankand-file gardaí voted no confidence in Mr Harris in an unprecedented ballot by members of the Garda Representative Association (GRA).
He has also come under fire from senior officers dismayed at the policing approach to the far rightlinked protests this week.
Reflecting the growing disillusionment in the force, one source said ‘a dysfunctional Garda culture’ that has grown under the stewardship of Commissioner Harris ‘was revealed for all to see last Wednesday outside Leinster House’.
They told the MoS: ‘When the commissioner came in, he showed an intense tendency for taking disciplinary action against anyone who had displeased management.
‘There were senior gardaí suspended and arrested in Limerick. Former gardaí have been jailed. Internal Garda whistleblowers have
been pursued and suspended. All this says to middle management that, if you mount a proper hardnosed public order operation that offends the liberal media, then you’re going to be punished.’
Senior management sources said the culture in An Garda Síochána has regressed under the commissioner, who is known for his strongwilled and no-nonsense approach.
One officer said of the reluctance among officers to take a firm approach against the protesters: ‘There is no room for independent thought. No room for a chief super or a superintendent to say, “You know what? We’re going to baton charge... and arrest 100 of them”.’
In a series of briefings to the MoS, Garda managers were highly critical of the response to violent protests in recent years. A source said: ‘Gardaí are gun-shy about protests ever since [People Before Profit-Solidarity TD] Paul Murphy imprisoned Joan Burton in her car in the name of water protests.
‘There was also a stand-off in Tallaght with a certain group which the Policing Authority got uptight about. More recently there was a riot/demonstration on Grafton Street which indirectly led to the retirement of Anne Marie Cagney as DMR [Dublin Metropolitan Region] Assistant Commissioner.
‘The gun-shy consequences arise from no clear guideline or proper training for such situations. Also the very real fear that, if it spirals out of control, frontline gardaí will either be injured or disciplined.’
Garda management were criticised for failing to deploy a trained public order unit outside the Dáil. There was no use of batons, nor of officers in full body armour.
Junior minister Niall Collins said he wants to see a stronger and more visible Garda presence outside Leinster House.
He told the MoS: ‘I was on the Champs-Élysées in Paris recently and I saw armed, body armour-clad, helmeted police everywhere. We often hear here that the French like to protest, but the reason it is managed there is that there are massive, trained, batonwielding contingents of publicorder police deployed.’
Thirteen people were arrested on Wednesday following the protests outside Leinster House. Most of these were arrested as they attempted to block staff from leaving the building. Two men have since been charged with public order offences.
Nine of those arrested on Wednesday are due to appear before Dublin District Court on October 18 charged with a variety of public order offences.
The Garda Press Office defended the policing of the protest in response to queries from the MoS.
A spokesman said: ‘A Senior Investigating Officer has been appointed, overseeing an investigation team based at Pearse Street, to co-ordinate and investigate all of the circumstances regarding these incidents and any other matters which may be identified as necessary for investigation which occurred around Government Buildings.
‘As this is an ongoing criminal investigation, An Garda Síochána cannot make any further comment,’ the spokesman added.
Requests for a personal statement from Commissioner Harris regarding his position were not addressed by the Garda Press Office.