Our man has some neck to tell Blair he should give O’Loan more clout

IT is both ludicrous and hypocritical to hear Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern call on the British government to strengthen the powers of Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan in the wake of the appalling collusion she uncovered between the security forces in the North and loyalist paramilitaries.

Ludicrous and hypocritical because he wants another government to lend greater power to an institution the equivalent of which his own Government has adamantly refused to establish here.

In Northern Ireland there is at least a police ombudsman, and a very effective one as we down South have come to realise. It is an office that time and time again has been demanded, especially after the Morris tribunal report exposed corruption and abuses within the gardaí.