Seanad debates

Tuesday, 8 April 2003

Garda Síochána (Police Co-Operation) Bill 2003: Second Stage.

 

This is one island but because we remain under different jurisdictions there are various ways in which we carry out our various activities. Children go to school, men and women go shopping, do their jobs and build or rent their houses. all of which is normal procedure. The rates of criminal activity and the methods of policing it, the way in which sports and recreation are used as conduits for young people to express their feelings and get rid of their pent-up energy may have different consequences North and South. There may be different ways of approaching the same problem. We will have much to learn. Equally, the PSNI will have much to learn too about normal everyday life here. For instance – I think Senator Walsh, our spokesperson on justice matters, spoke about this – there will be the huge issue of drugs and how they are dealt with here and in the North, to all of which there is a European background. European directives have, perhaps, been implemented at different rates in the two jurisdictions. One may be slower than the other. All of this will be the stuff of everyday life when these exchanges take place.

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