Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The situation in particular on the northern side has eased in terms of the militarisation to which we were used in the past 30 years, but it is safe to say that there has not been an easing of the Garda focus on the side of the Border. That is instanced by the fact that this year alone 50 people have been arrested and 22 people are before the courts. Recently at my insistence the Garda Síochána, in conjunction with a number of other State agencies, commenced multi-agency checkpoints along the Border. I was a great supporter of that particular initiative when I was Minister for Social and Family Affairs. Recently the Garda Síochána instigated those in an effort to disrupt not just ordinary smuggling, but also the dissident groups. I understand they have been another successful operational tool.

Deputy Rabbitte inquired about the capability of dissident groups. There is doubt that even though their numbers are still relatively small they have gained in capability and there is more sharing of information between some of the groups which did not happen heretofore.

On the question of training camps in the Republic while one can never say that this does not happen, the Garda Síochána has been very successful in recent years in dealing with the so-called dissidents. Much of the reason for this is that most people do not have the type of support that their predecessors in the provisional IRA had across this island.

See this speech in context