The Government’s failure to publish a national security strategy is “indefensible” and leaves the State’s security services without clear guidance and direction, a veteran Garda intelligence officer has said.
Work began on such a strategy in 2019 and a document, which would cover the period to 2025, was due to be published in 2021.
Publication has since been repeatedly delayed and six years later, it is still being worked on by the National Security Analysis Centre, based in the Department of the Taoiseach.
Donal O’Driscoll, who retired from the Garda in 2021 following 38 years service, most of it in security and intelligence roles, criticised the ongoing failure to publish a strategy.
He said it is a symptom of the State’s troubling complacency towards national security “at a time of heightened global instability and risk, unprecedented since the Cold War”.
Writing for the Azure Forum, an independent security think tank, Mr O’Driscoll said the importance of an overarching security strategy “cannot be overstated”.
“In its absence, senior leadership of [security agencies] can only guess at what Government plans are for the future of their organisations.”
Mr O’Driscoll, who previously served on EU security missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Moldova, suggested that Ireland’s complacency is rooted in the perception that neutrality will insulate the State from the security risks impacting other countries.
The State faces “rapidly evolving hybrid threats which challenge traditional solutions and require novel, agile and proactive responses”, he said.
Guidance on how to design the State’s intelligence and security infrastructure to respond to these risks is “long over-due”.
A strategy is also needed to clearly delineate the duties of the Garda and Defence Forces when it comes to national security, he said. Collaboration between the two services is “imperative” and a role similar to the US’s director of national intelligence should be created to co-ordinate their work.
Responsibility for State security and intelligence is split between the Garda and the Defence Forces with the Garda taking the primary role.
Fianna Fáil’s election manifesto detailed the creation of a stand-alone intelligence and security agency which would take over this role. However, this proposal was dropped from the eventual Programme for Government.
Mr O’Driscoll cautioned against transferring security and intelligence functions to a stand-alone agency.
A large number of highly experienced gardaí would have to be transferred to any new agency, leaving the Garda short of experienced intelligence staff, he said.
However, if the Garda is to retain control of national security, it needs resources, he said. Its security and intelligence structures “have never been supported by the levels of manpower and capital investment that would make them truly transformational”.
Mr O’Driscoll said the Garda national security budget must also be ring-fenced, something promised in the Programme for Government, so officers do not have to compete for resources with day-to-day policing priorities.
“Reallocating funds to address issues like rising road deaths should surely not negatively impact State security operations. Conversely, the recruitment of specialist intelligence personnel should not impact the availability of officers for roads policing and patrols. Neither function is served well by this conflict of interests.”
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
