Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

Security arrangements for the visits of Queen Elizabeth II and the President of the United States were primarily an operational matter for An Garda Síochána. Among the roles assigned to the Defence Forces in the 2000 White Paper on Defence is the provision of aid to the civil power - meaning in practice to assist, when requested, An Garda Síochána. With regard to these two hugely successful visits, the role played by the Defence Forces included search, surveillance and security operations on land, at sea and in the air as requested by, and in support of, An Garda Síochána. The Defence Forces were also involved in the guarding of vital installations and in the provision of ceremonial duties as part of Queen Elizabeth's State visit.

Consultations on the role and requirements of the Defence Forces, in advance and throughout the two visits, were ongoing with An Garda Síochána. Having regard to future similar scale events, it would be inappropriate for me to indicate the nature and extent of any of the particular roles which the Defence Forces may have undertaken.

It is only appropriate that, on my own behalf and on behalf of the Government, I should thank members of the Defence Forces and An Garda Síochána for the Trojan work which they undertook both in preparation for and during the visits. Their professionalism, whether it was in providing the necessary security arrangements or participating in the ceremonial aspects, has contributed greatly to the success of the visits and once again shows their commitment and dedication.

In this regard, I also wish to commend the Defence Forces for the great dignity with which they carried out their role during last weekend's State funeral of our former Taoiseach, Dr. Garret FitzGerald. Indeed, in relation to all of the historic events that have taken place over the past week, I particularly wish to express my appreciation to the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces and to the Garda Commissioner, and their senior staff, for the leadership that they have shown to their respective organisations.

The vast majority of people in the State welcomed Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip to our country and also the visit of President Obama. In praising the enormous contribution of both An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces to these events, it is appropriate that I should say something more about security matters. While the right to peaceful protest is a vital part of our democracy and is a fundamental constitutional right, it is unacceptable that the many thousands of people who would have wished to welcome Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip on our streets, and to view personally the historic events that took place during last week's visit, were largely confined to doing so on their television screens because of the threat posed by a small minority of malcontents, criminal terrorists and thugs. It would not have been necessary to mount such an intensive and expensive security operation if not for the conduct of these people.

It is disturbing that despite the external threat posed by fundamental extremist groups, many thousands of people who attended the visit of President Obama in College Green yesterday were, for security reasons arising from the threats and actions of domestic home-grown groups of malcontents, unable to be in similar proximity to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip during the royal visit. This is deeply regrettable. I hope that on any future visit this will not cause a further difficulty and require a similar level of security.

I want expressly and publicly to thank both An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces for rapidly responding to a multiplicity of hoax bomb calls over the past week, and the Defence Forces for their engagement in dealing with a small number of devices intended to cause injury and disrupt the royal visit. On behalf of the Government I want to make it clear that the full rigours of the law have been, and will be, brought to bear on those responsible and in all cases, where appropriate, prosecutions will be initiated.

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