Call for cross-border policing

A senior backbench member of Fianna Fáil today called on the London and Dublin governments to consider permitting the Garda Síochána to operate in the Northern Ireland borderside villages of Crossmaglen and Forkhill.

Seamus Kirk, who represents the border constituency of Louth in the Dáil, declared: “The Irish and British governments should immediately consider the possibility of establishing this scheme as a confidence-building measure for the people of these villages and a real way of pushing the peace process forward.”

Mr Kirk, a European Parliament election candidate, added: “I am calling on all interested parties to look at this proposal very seriously.

“I believe that both the Good Friday Agreement and the subsequent Garda Síochána (Police Co-operation) Bill provide a basis on which this could be made to occur.”