Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 May 2023
277. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the number of instances in which An Garda Síochána has made requests to him and-or his predecessors to join PSNI counterparts on operations in Northern Ireland in the past five years to date. [20286/23]
View answerI understand the Deputy's question to relate to cooperation between the An Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in policing matters. As the Deputy will be aware there is very close, ongoing cooperation between An Garda Síochána and the PSNI in a range of policing activities. Every day police to police cooperation is operational in nature. The Garda Commissioner is responsible under the law for the management of An Garda Síochána, including operational matters and the deployment of resources. As Minister, I have no responsibility for these matters.
The strong ongoing cooperation between An Garda Síochána and the PSNI is further underpinned by a joint Cross Border Policing Strategy which has as its aims to improve public safety throughout Ireland, to disrupt criminal activity and to enhance the policing capability of both police services on the island. It covers the range of policing activities and contains a series of initiatives in which both police services are actively engaged.
The cross-border Joint Agency Task Force (JATF) was established under the 2015 Fresh Start Agreement to bring a concerted and enhanced effort to tackle cross-jurisdictional organised crime. The Task Force is led by senior officers from An Garda Síochána, Revenue, the PSNI and HM Revenue and Customs. The Criminal Assets Bureau and the National Crime Agency are also involved as needed in operational activity. Officers from An Garda Síochána and the PSNI have highlighted the practical value in the continuing excellent level of co-operation and operational activity between the agencies in tackling drug crime, rural crime, financial crime, trafficking in human beings including children, excise fraud and organised immigration crime.
The JATF reports are produced and published twice yearly. The most recent report was received in December 2022 and covered the period April to September 2022. It highlighted a number of specific joint operational successes in the areas of combatting drug trafficking, people trafficking, rural crime, organised immigration crime, excise fraud and fraud/economic crime.
I am assured by Garda authorities that the long established and close working relationship with the PSNI remains central in enabling the two services to work more effectively together in tackling crime and promoting community safety for all communities on this island.
