Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This morning I want to raise a serious issue in the country, which the nation is talking about non-stop and which the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe has brought to the fore. I call for an urgent independent review of the Garda Síochána. Judge Conroy conducted an independent review of the Garda Síochána in 1970. The cuts in the number of Garda stations, the cut in the number of gardaí available in the countryside and the cuts in resources cannot be decided by civil servants who tell the Minister what he wants to hear. We need an independent review to look at whether the Garda Síochána is being adequately resourced.

I wish to make three points. First, there are these gangsters crossing over the Border between North and South with impunity. I call for an immediate intensifying of the relationships between the PSNI and the Garda Síochána. They should have simultaneous road blocks on either side of the Border. We all know that the PSNI and the Garda cannot cross the Border but there should be simultaneous road blocks on either side and radio control, and we should intensify the meetings that take place between them to know what is going on in the country.

In this second, important point I concur with Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell. Although I hate having to say so in public, Irish institutions have been very badly managed. We should have top-class Garda sergeants in all these areas around the country.