ROLL on the election. It has become almost impossible to keep up with the Minister for Justice as she rushes around the country cutting tapes and turning sods, opening and reopening Garda stations, examining plans for new prisons. She must barely have time to drop into the office to collect her mail.
And so it might have been with a certain exhaustion that senior gardai, Government officials and the media arrived at Baldonnel yesterday to share Mrs Owen's joy in watching the new Garda Air Support Unit in action.
The only problem with the air support unit is that it has no aircraft. A helicopter and a small plane are on order but not due to arrive until June or July, by which time the order of battle at the Cabinet table could well be different.
But wait. Even without their new high tech aircraft, the unit has completed "phase 2" of its training, and can use an Air Corps helicopter to demonstrate what has been learned.
And so on to the tarmac at Baldonnel, with Mrs Owen, the Minister for Defence, Mr Barrett, and the Deputy Garda Commissioner, Mr Noel Conroy.
From a speaker mounted beside a viewing stand blared the startling news of a "snatch" from a Securicor van in Naas. The voice from the speaker, with the calm assurance familiar to anyone who has heard one garda communicating with another, averred that the suspects had made off in a gold Ford Sierra.
Suddenly the Air Corps helicopter was overhead, and with a roar the Sierra rushed past with two shiny patrol cars in hot pursuit.
From the beginning the "suspects" seemed to have their work cut out - their rather battered looking Sierra against the land and air forces of the State, with the top brass watching.
Had they seen the prepared script in Mrs Owen's pocket, praising the "successful results" of the demonstration, they would probably have thrown in the towel right away. But they hurried on, completing three circuits of the aerodrome watched by gardai in the helicopter who relayed information on their movements to the patrol cars.
Eventually a garda flung a spiked "stinger" into the path of the Sierra. The device punctured the two front tyres and the car came to a halt 100 yards away. The "suspects" jumped out and made off across the fields.
The gardai jumped from their cars and ran in pursuit, and one of the "suspects" was quickly nabbed. But the other, showing more spirit, took off like a steeplechaser towards the boundary fence.
For a couple of horrifying minutes he seemed to have a better than evens chance of getting away, before common sense prevailed and he was brought to the ground by a couple of rather winded gardai. With convincing realism, his head was accidentally knocked off the roof of a patrol car as he was taken into custody.
The Minister declared herself delighted with the display, and congratulated the 20 Garda officers and nine Air Corps pilots in the new unit.
The £5.5 million worth of Defender aeroplane and AS355M; Eurocopter now on order, complete with searchlights and night sight cameras, will be based at Baldonnel. Unlike the Air Corps helicopters, they will have 24 hour and all weather capability. They will be used against "all forms of crime".
Gardai will fly as "observers" in the new aircraft, but will be able to direct operations while the Air Corps personnel will be responsible mainly for the safety of the aircraft.