Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have become embroiled in an escalating row over law and order following a claim by Dublin TD Jim O’Callaghan that its erstwhile coalition partner had made “no progress” in this area during its 14 years in power.
The Fianna Fáil TD, a senior counsel, said a list of initiatives that had originated with him had been taken on board by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, including proposals for Garda recruitment, the designation of safe countries, the Children’s Act, and new legislation on knife crime.
Following terse exchanges between the two politicians on RTÉ on Thursday night, the personalised criticisms continued on Friday. Ms McEntee responded to Mr O’Callaghan’s claim that he had come up with the ideas by saying: “There are probably women all over the country who will understand it when men try to claim credit for their work.”
Taoiseach Simon Harris also rowed into the exchanges on Friday by saying that Ms McEntee did not need to be taking anybody else’s ideas. Speaking on the campaign trail in Co Clare, he said: “She’s a very smart, savvy and able politician, and I’m very proud of her.”
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Both parties launched justice policies on Friday with both outlining plans to increase Garda numbers, provide new prison spaces, and employ new technology such as body cameras and facial recognition technology.
Fine Gael promised it would recruit an extra 6,000 additional gardaí and provide 1,500 new prison spaces in a new prison at Thornton Hall, Co Dublin. For its part Fianna Fáil promised to take on an additional 5,000 gardaí, and increase prison spaces by 1,100.
However, both press conferences were dominated by the latest dispute between the erstwhile coalition partners over policy.
At the Fianna Fáil conference Mr O’Callaghan said he did not want to personalise the attacks on Ms McEntee but argued that it was one area of government where no progress had been made despite Fine Gael having control of the Department of Justice over 14 years.
Referring to his own party, he said: “I believe we would have seen greater progress in the area of justice, and I think that’s part of the reason why ... that’s one of the portfolios we would be interested in pursuing (if elected to government).”
He added: “I’m not going to personalise it to Ms McEntee but I do think there is a benefit to have the Department of Justice under new political control and direction as it really needs a new energy within that department.”
At the Fine Gael launch Ms McEntee said her party’s proposals to introduce facial recognition technology (FRT) would not affect the civil liberties of citizens.
The specific proposal on FRT envisages its use for serious crimes with a maximum sentence of five years or more, and for missing people cases. Ms McEntee insisted there would be strict safeguards in place to ensure FRT was used appropriately.
“We saw last year in November in our city centre, we had gardaí trawling through thousands of hours of CCTV footage to try to identify culprits involved in the riots. FRT would ensure that that could be done in a matter of days, and that people could be before the courts with that clear evidence, and be prosecuted much more quickly.
“I don’t think anybody should apologise for providing gardaí with the tools that they need.”
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