Plan to post gardaí at European holiday resorts

GARDAÍ could be seconded to some of Europe’s most popular holiday resorts to help Irish citizens in distress.

The idea was mooted by French interior minister Michele Alliot-Marie at a justice ministers’ meeting in the French resort of Cannes.

The move would help win back the support of EU citizens to the union, she said, as they saw it affecting their everyday lives in a beneficial way.

The minister also referred to Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon treaty as one example of how people were disillusioned with the way the union was working.

“Citizens do not have a positive vision of Europe as it is being constructed. They think it is being built in a remote way that does not take into account their everyday needs,” she said, following a meeting of interior and justice members of the 27 member states.

France has the EU presidency and has proposed “European police stations” in the most popular tourist zones around the union where police from other EU countries would be posted at holiday season to help citizens.

“These would not be monstrous mega-police stations, but rather offices where people from a foreign country can come and be assisted when they have something nasty happen to them, if they have been attacked or had their pockets picked, and where they will be well looked after,” she said.

The idea is similar to what is being done in policing of big sports events, she said.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern said he was broadly supportive of the idea, adding that Irish embassy staff are often kept very busy looking after Irish citizens with problems in big holiday resorts.

However, such a move would be up to the Garda Commissioner to decide, but he was not very keen on having foreign police working in Irish holiday spots to help their citizens.

Ms Alliot-Marie said that issues such as organised crime, terrorism and delinquency were the main concerns of EU citizens and had to be addressed.