The Taoiseach has expressed confidence in An Garda Siochana’s ability to police the upcoming visit of US President Donald Trump, despite reservations expressed by the Garda Representative Association.
The GRA has indicated the visit will place operational strain on rank and file members but Micheál Martin said he discussed this weekend’s security operation with the Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly last week and is confident gardaí have sufficient resources to police the event.
The Fianna Fáil leader was speaking in Tullamore, Co Offaly, as his parliamentary party gathered for its annual think-in ahead of the new Dáil term.
“Well, I spoke to the commissioner on Thursday evening, and he was, first of all, very strong and confident in terms of the capacity of An Garda Síochána to meet the challenges that lie ahead,” the Taoiseach said.
“This is an exceptionally busy year for An Garda Síochána, with the presidency of the European Union, the visit of President Trump, and we do have the capacity to manage this and to do it properly, and resources and very significant resources have been allocated in that regard, and so I’m confident of that.”
It comes as a former assistant garda commissioner said that the reputation of the State is “on the line” regarding the security operation surrounding the upcoming visit of US President Donald Trump.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Pat Leahy said that there has been “significant” engagement with the US Secret Service and US Embassy staff for months.
“Wherever you have gardaí, you’ll have Secret Service,” he said.
Mr Leahy said that there is not always a lot of advance notice for high-profile visits such as that of Mr Trump and added that information is not freely available until the very last minute in terms of the planning cycle.
Donald Trump will meet the Taoiseach at Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park
“So you probably wouldn’t get as much time for a huge security operation like this as you would get for a major concert.
“And I suppose one of the key things that happens, for months now, you have to assume that and An Garda Síochána have been engaging, communicating, consulting with the Secret Service in relation to this.”
The US president will arrive in Dublin on Saturday where he will meet with President Catherine Connolly in Áras an Uachtaráin.
Mr Trump will also meet Taoiseach Micheál Martin at Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park.
He will then travel to his resort in Doonbeg in Co Clare later on Saturday afternoon to attend the Irish Open golf tournament which concludes on Sunday.
Mr Leahy said that gardaí will throw the net wide regarding security threats and the current geopolitical environment.
“And they’ll look at it and they’ll take that all the way down to the village in Co Clare.”
He added: “This is a huge operation and it’ll operate then in concentric security circles, hardening as you get closer to the centre where the actual principle will be, where POTUS will be.”
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Mr Leahy said that Doonbeg is a completely different security scenario than Dublin and a minor breach would damage the State’s reputation.
“It’s a totally different operating environment. And I suppose that’s probably where I would be concerned. And I don’t think anything major is going to happen, but it doesn’t have to happen.
“Something small, some minor breach of security and the reputation of the State is up for grabs.
“So I think there’ll be lots of intense scrutiny about the security down around there, because you could be, I suppose, guided into a false sense of security because of where it is.”
Mr Leahy said that he thinks security in Doonbeg will be “quite heavy”.
“And it needs to be because the reputation of the State is on the line for this particular business.”
Trump won’t be ‘looking for rows’ during Ireland visit
Meanwhile, a former chief of staff to former taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that the US president will be in a “positive frame of mind” during his upcoming visit to Ireland.
Brian Murphy, who has met with Donald Trump on a number of occasions, said Mr Trump will probably be in a good mood on this trip because he is not here for business.
However, things can go off unexpectedly, he warned.
Donald Trump is expected to present the trophy to the winner of the Irish Open on Sunday
“But I think the advantage we have on this trip is that he is coming primarily to go to Doonbeg, so he is in a positive frame of mind, and he also is in a positive frame of mind in relation to Irish Americans.
“Like he has said on a few occasions, ‘Oh, I got a very big vote out of Irish America in the presidential election’.
“So I don’t think he’s going to be looking for rows in the way that he potentially has with some other people.”
Mr Murphy said while topics of conversation can be prepared for President Trump, it would be a good idea to check his social media feed for the previous 72 hours because “something might pop out of that”.
“I recall at the time of the Shannon visit, he was involved in a sort of Twitter war with Bette Midler. So we had five/six minutes of Bette Midler.
“You can prepare on certain topics, but you also need to be kind of having a look at what he’s been doing on social media.”
Mr Murphy told Morning Ireland there will be intense scrutiny about the security in Doonbeg.
Any minor breach of security and the reputation of the State is “up for grabs”, he said.