THE GARDA believes the IRA leadership is trying to achieve a new ceasefire but this depended on a settlement of political difficulties in the North, the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, has said.
In one of the most detailed and wide ranging addresses ever made by a serving Garda Commissioner, Mr Byrne said his priority was to see a greater Garda presence in public places to counter street crime. This would entail much greater civilianisation of nonpolice work in the force.
He insisted the internal dispute between Garda representative bodies was not affecting the morale or effectiveness of the force but indicated that falling pay levels could affect morale.
In his address to the Association of European Journalists in Dublin yesterday, the Commissioner replied to public criticism by politicians over Garda arrests of five people involved in anti drug activities in Dublin.
He referred to public representatives who "apparently take the side of people arrested on suspicion of committing crime during protest marches or on suspicion of crime committed by those people who also take part in protest marches.
"If it is being said that the law should not apply to these people, or in these circumstances, then the question must be asked: what is the alternative? What are the suggested parameters? Has summary justice ever led to a stable society?"
The Commissioner also spoke of "infiltration of marches by people with extended agendas", a reference to members of the IRA and Sinn Fein who have moved into the anti drugs campaign."
However, he said the republican infiltration and the arrests were side issues. The Garda's main objective was to combat drug smuggling and trafficking.
Asked about his view of the IRA's intentions, he said: "I think that the organisation is striving towards achieving a ceasefire,", but he said police on both sides of the Border are prepared to deal with whatever situation arose.
He also linked the Continuity Army Council (CAC), which admitted Thursday's failed bomb attack in Derry, to the splinter republican party, Republican Sinn Fein (RSF). The CAC, he said, came from a "republican family which has had links with RSF in the past. It is quite obvious where they are coming from. This is a group we have had dealings with before and whose activities we have thwarted before".
He rejected criticism of the force in the wake of the £2.8 million Brink's Allied robbery in January last year; the operation in which 13.5 tonnes of cannabis was seized at Urlingford, Co Kilkenny; and the soccer riot at Lansdowne Road two years ago.
Asked about the bail referendum, the Commissioner pointed out that an "absolute minimum" of 5,400 offences were committed by people on bail last year. He said there could be thousands more undetected offences.
Commenting on policing operations with other nations, Mr Byrne revealed he was considering placing Garda liaison officers in the main European capitals.
He rejected suggestions that the Garda's relations with the RUC were anything other than satisfactory. He was a personal friend of the RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, and he had always found RUC officers "most helpful and most obliging".