Incoming commissioner Drew Harris steps up meetings with gardaí before takeover

Incoming commissioner Drew Harris has been stepping up meetings with senior gardaí as he prepares to take over in three weeks’ time.

The former PSNI deputy chief constable has held a series of meetings, including one with the Garda Senior Management Team in Navan last week.

Each time he travels south, he is met at the border by his close protection team from the elite Emergency Response Unit and transported in a bullet-proof 4x4.

He formally starts on September 3 when he takes the Garda Oath and swears allegiance to the Irish State and signs the Official Secrets Act. That will follow the retirement of acting commissioner Dónal Ó Cualáin on September 2.

It is unclear where the commissioner will live when he moves down. There were reports last month that a disused house in Phoenix Park, where Garda HQ is located, was been earmarked and redeveloped for Mr Harris.

The property, thought to be the Park Superintendent’s house, is owned by the Office of Public works and has been modernised. But sources said it is not now clear if Mr Harris will move into that property or if he will live somewhere else.

His first public engagement will be on September 7, when he attends a passing out ceremony at Templemore Training College. He has will have two other scheduled public engagements in September, one before an Oireachtas committee and later with the Policing Authority.

His takeover will come at a time of transformation in the organisation as the report of the Policing Commission is due around mid-September.

That report will provide a blueprint for the future of policing and is likely to result in an implementation body.

The commission is modelled on the Patten Commission in the North which directed the replacement of the old RUC with the PSNI.

Mr Harris is a highly experienced officer and played a role in tackling both organised crime and paramilitary activity in the North. His father, Alwyn Harris, an RUC superintendent, was murdered by the IRA in 1989.

In his position as assistant commissioner of the Crime Operations Department, he was in charge of organised crime, intelligence (criminal and paramilitary) and special operations (criminal and national security).

When he appeared before the Smithwick Tribunal, which investigated garda collusion in the murder of two RUC officers, he was described as having “overall responsibility” for intelligence within the PSNI and as liaison officer with MI5, the British security service.

He is the first officer of a foreign police force to take over the top job in the Gardaí, which is both the policing and security agency.

Garda sources have claimed this is unprecedented in western Europe. A number of sources have expressed concern at Mr Harris’s previous position, and relationship with MI5, and the fact that he will have full access to all sensitive security information here.

But he will make a solemn declaration under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 to uphold the Constitution and the laws here and will sign the Official Secrets Act 1963.

During his public engagements, he is likely to be questioned on the security issue and ongoing matters in the North, including criticism from campaigners seeking access to all PSNI documentation in relation to historic outrages, such as the Miami Showband massacre in 1975.