Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has rejected claims made by the Garda Representative Association (GRA) that the force’s armed response capability was at times not fit to deal with a serious firearms or terrorist incident. The contents of the letter emerged on Tuesday morning, with Mr Harris later sending a memo countering the main points made in it. The commissioner said that, far from the Garda’s armed response capability being weakened and under-resourced, it had been expanded in recent years and that further expansion was planned. While courses would soon commence to select more Garda members for ASUs, there were already 180 personnel in the units. Serious incidentsHowever, Mr Harris pointed out that changes made to how the Garda responded to serious incidents meant the ASUs were now the first layer of armed response to serious incidents, and not the ERU.

Source: The Irish Times January 21, 2020 21:45 UTC