Kennedy says new border force planned by PM raises big issues about policing border with Republic
Danny Kennedy MLA, Deputy Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, said today that while he welcomed the creation of a unified border force to fight against international terrorism which the Prime Minister has said will be “highly visible and uniformed,” this would raise serious issues of control if policing and justice powers were devolved to the Assembly.
“This new border force will bring together elements of the immigration and customs services so clearly it is a national as opposed to a regional force. This is also borne out by its border control remit which will be outside the scope of a regional administration in Stormont since it related to national security. It raises important questions, however, about the policing of the land border with the Irish Republic which, in turn, impacts directly on North-South relations.”
“There is no question that the land border with the Irish Republic is a UK border and will, therefore, have to be included in the remit of the new force. This is especially important after recent high profile drug smuggling cases where it was alleged by the authorities that drugs smuggled via the West Coast of Ireland were destined for the English market.”
“With the intelligence service MI5 already operating in the Province, the advent of a border force raises serious issues about the common sense of devolving policing powers to a local administration. This could seriously weaken efforts to co-ordinate policing activities since it is difficult to understand how certain operations against criminality could be as seriously advanced if they were not carried out under one single command structure but required all sorts of liaison between two or even three separate forces with two controlled from the UK and one controlled locally.”