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The devastating effects of the implementation of the Patten
Report are still being felt in Northern Ireland.
Officers of the Garda in the Republic of Ireland are being
invited to apply for posts within the Police Service of Northern
Ireland, a breathtaking departure from the long-established
practice of appointing officers who are citizens of the United
Kingdom.
No doubt the Garda officers are honourable men, doing a fine
job in their own country. But Northern Ireland is a part of
the United Kingdom - whatever Labour lawyers may claim - and
in any normal country the law and order officers would be
appointed from the citizens of that State.
Can anyone doubt the uproar there would be if France decided
to recruit for its police from Britain or Germany?
It's a ridiculous situation, but just the latest manifestation
of the fall out from the Patten report - the adoption of which
had already led to the destruction of the RUC and its replacement
with a force whose recruiting procedure is strictly controlled
by a sectarian headcount - a situation without parallel anywhere
else.
Recruitment of Garda officers, the rejection of Protestants
for the PSNI unless the 50-50 recruitment requirements can
be met, and the axing of the excellent police band. Meanwhile,
some 80 PSNI officers are serving in Kosovo while the streets
of Northern Ireland become more dangerous.
On top of that the SDLP, one of the pro-Agreement parties,
wants to reduce the number of police stations in Northern
Ireland by some 30 stations, and, of course, Sinn Fein cannot
see its way to recognise the police force in spite of so many
concessions made to republicanism. What a sorry state of affairs
and one brought about by the implementation of the Patten
report.
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