Longford Leader columnist Mattie Fox: Poor governance is unacceptable

O’Rourke opened proceedings saying;

“Garda Headquarters have said that both An Garda Síochána and the PSNI are satisfied that normal procedures were followed during an armed escort for the Garda Commissioner last month which led to a security alert at Garda Headquarters, and a PSNI vehicle being damaged. Commissioner Drew Harris was being driven back to Headquarters from Northern Ireland on Monday, March 25 in an unmarked, reinforced PSNI Range Rover as part of a joint Garda/PSNI convoy.”

O’Rourke then went to John O’Brien, policing and security specialist and a retired detective chief superintendent, and also in studio was Tom Clonan, a security analyst.

The vehicle in which Commissioner Drew Harris was travelling on March 25 continued onwards when it got to the border, and carried on all the way to the Phoenix Park, where, it is alleged, a serving garda officer on the gate did not recognise the northern vehicle and triggered a security alarm, which caused the vehicle to be temporarily disabled.

Gardaí have since issued a statement saying that it wasn’t a security alarm, but a malfunction on the security front.
Lots of questions arise.

First of all, as far as most people aware, the only forces of law and order that are allowed to carry weapons are the gardai and members of the defence forces, in the 26 counties.

Was anyone trying to say that the northern police force, had rendered their officially issued arms disabled, once they crossed the border into the Republic?

At what point did they disable them.....a few yards into the republic, or a few miles...., and how could they reasonably protect the Commissioner who is a high level target, if they were disabling weapons?

It had been forcibly alleged that the Northern Ireland police were carrying loaded arms in the vehicle whilst it was travelling from the border on to the Phoenix Park.

The Department of Justice has since confirmed that since 2013 members of the PSNI have been allowed to carry firearms in the Republic, which was news to a lot of people.

During the discussion on Sean O’Rourke’s programme, a statement from the Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan, arrived, saying that;

“I understand that there has been a minor incident involving a car traveling at about walking pace. I am advised that the travel and security arrangements on this occasion were in line with standard practice.”

In response, John O’Brien immediately volunteered, “let me say directly, and unequivocally, that the arrangements as described in the media, were not in line with standard operating procedures, or practice, and they certainly weren’t good security practice”.

At this point Tom Clonan chimed in to list the rules governing armed personnel ending with “...the last one is legal requirements, and under legal requirements the person carrying a firearm must be legally entitled to hold it, must be trained on that weapon, must have fired it on ranges...and under that principle it’s not acceptable for members of a foreign police or security to carry a firearm.” At this point Clonan seemed more than slightly bemused and finished by saying “if this is being described as standard practice, it’s at variance with what the law sets out.”

This is a snippet of where our government is at.

On Wednesday, April 10, the same RTÉ host broached the national children’s hospital and the overspend.

Tom Parlon was on the programme, and attempted to defend some aspects of the hospital, by using technically accurate but good “pr-speak” language, nonetheless even he had to acknowledge that the way the governance of the hospital was approached was very poor.

The fact of the matter is that while people were being dismayed by the hospital spend, the government continued apace to pour concrete into the foundations, and other parts of the site, almost as though they wanted to advance it to a stage where it couldn’t possibly be changed.

Actually, if they knew even the most basic facts about building, they would have known that political maneuvering had long ago won the day, and the hospital had long since been accepted as being an oncoming reality, despite not even having a helicopter landing space. Meaning that a sick child will have to be dropped at some other location, before being transported to the hospital by ambulance.

Nobody could make this up. Perhaps Laurel & Hardy.

Our Taoiseach is a former Minister for Health, and ultimate overseer of all affairs within his purview, so even a cursory glance at the plans of the hospital should have made it abundantly clear that the omission of a helicopter pad would be a laugh.
Well, that’s exactly what happened. Sadly, nobody’s laughing.

Finally, Michael Brennan & Emmet Oliver, in the Sunday Business Post, have broken the story that the children’s hospital is at ‘significant risk’ after all the tender documents from the unsuccessful bidders were destroyed. The legally required period for documents to be retained is seven years.