Harris: Garda families ‘sickened’ by McDonald’s positioning as police champion

Garda families will feel “sickened” at Mary Lou McDonald positioning herself as a champion of the Irish police, Simon Harris has claimed.

During robust exchanges on law and order during the RTE debate, and in particular last year’s riots in Dublin, Mr Harris made reference to the fact that former Sinn Fein TD Martin Ferris had, in 2009, collected Garda killer Pearse McAuley from the gates of prison after his release.

McAuley, who died earlier this year, was sentenced to 14 years in jail for the manslaughter of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, who was shot dead by an IRA gang during a raid on the post office in Adare, Co Limerick, in June 1996.

Mr Harris made the remarks after Ms McDonald had heavily criticised Fine Gael’s handling of the justice portfolio, particularly how Justice Minister Helen McEntee had dealt with the Dublin riots.

In the aftermath of the violent scenes of last November, the Sinn Fein leader declared no confidence in both Ms McEntee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris. She reiterated her criticism of Ms McEntee during Tuesday’s Prime Time debate.

In response, Mr Harris said: “I think there will be many Garda families at home finding it quite sickening that Mary Lou McDonald is now the champion of An Garda Siochana. That’s the first thing.

“I’m not ready to take a lecture from you on law and order. My party has never had a TD who has collected a Garda killer from the gates of prison. First point.

“Second point is this – your position was to immediately blame the head of the guards rather than the rioters, and you carried out a press conference at a crime scene. That was your approach. How do I use this to my political advantage? That was your approach. And the public saw right through it.”

Ms McDonald had earlier defended her response to the Dublin riots.

“The state lost control of the streets of our capital city on that occasion, that’s unacceptable and that, by any measurement, is a measure of failure. I don’t know what else it is,” she said.

“I, at the time, was very critical of Minister Helen McEntee. I stand by that position.”

She added: “How anybody could imagine that it is a badge of success to have that level of violence, and law and order breakdown, and the fear that it brought and the criminal damage that it meant.

“And, remember, people live in the inner city, it’s not just a thoroughfare. These are people’s neighbours. And then Helen McEntee, the minister from Fine Gael, walks through the streets accompanied by a whole battalion of gardai to proclaim that the streets are safe.

“Well, here’s the reality. People who live in the capital, and I’m a Dubliner, I love my city, I’m proud of my city, but as we speak, on the watch of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, people no longer feel safe walking the streets.”

The party leaders had been asked why it was taking so long to send the Dublin rioters to prison, compared with the speed of the response in Great Britain to this summer’s bouts of disorder.

Mr Harris said his party’s drive to increase Garda use of facial recognition technology and body-worn cameras would help expedite investigations.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said there was a “problem” with Ireland’s criminal justice system. Mr Martin’s party has signalled a strong desire to take on the justice brief if re-elected to government.

“There is a need to change the criminal justice system,” he said.

“I think we need to strengthen our bail laws, particularly in terms of rape and sexual assault and other violent offences. I think there is a problem. I mean, objectively looking at it, if you look what happened in the United Kingdom, where, after the rioting there and so on, people were arrested and behind bars within a month or two.

“Our criminal justice system, we’ve a written constitution and so on, but it’s taken 12 months for the first conviction after those Dublin riots, which were very serious riots where the state lost control of the streets of Dublin at a key moment and for a number of hours.”

Asked if that was a criticism of Fine Gael, Mr Martin replied: “It’s an objective, honest analysis.”