Fianna Fáil senator calls for Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to step down in wake of Dublin riots and stabbings

A Fianna Fáil Senator is publicly calling for the Garda Commissioner to step down.

Erin McGreehan said she had recently raised his position at an FF parliamentary party meeting to say he had lost the confidence of his rank-and-file, but admitted that she “didn’t get too much support.”

The party spokesperson in the Seanad on children, equality and integration, explained her position in the wake of the Parnell Square school attack and subsequent rioting.

She said she was less sure of whether Helen McEntee should also go, but said Drew Harris was a Fine Gael appointment to the head of the force.

The comments could put her portfolio at risk in the upper house, with the Senator adding: “Micheál Martin doesn’t agree with me often.” The latter nominated her as one of the Taoiseach’s 11 automatic appointments to the Seanad.

Speaking to the Irish Independent on Sunday, Louth-based Ms McGreehan, said: “I would have said that weeks ago, that the Commissioner should go — when the Gardaí were nearly on the point of striking.”

She claimed, without evidence, Drew Harris had suggested that malcontents within the force were motivated by sectarianism.

“I don’t meet any Gardaí who are happy with Drew Harris,” the Senator said, having also tweeted a call for him to go.

“That was before — this is just the latest. In my experience only Fine Gael were happy with his appointment.

“They hitched their wagon to him — and they are standing by their man. But he has lost his rank-and-file. He has absolutely caused division in the force.

“Any guard I speak to says we need to get rid of Drew Harris. And he certainly hasn’t brought the people with him. I saw (footage of) that Garda on his own (being attacked) on O’Connell bridge, and I felt, ‘Where did it all go wrong?’” Senator McGreehan said.

The senator said she is “not 100pc sure” whether Justice Minister Helen McEntee should remain in her position or not.

“What about Simon Harris and Heather Humphreys in that case? [Both were stand-in ministers for Justice when Ms McEntee was on maternity leave]. They are all part of this.”

But Senator McGreehan said she faulted Ms McEntee “for bringing in a Hate Bill — and I am all against hate crimes — that has no definition of hate, and we are supposed to leave it to jurisprudence. That is bad law.”

Ms McGreehan offered that there also had to be “a discussion on immigration. even though it is a tough area”.

She added that the Department of Justice had “farmed off” immigration to the Department of Children “so it (Justice) doesn’t have to deal with it.”

Micheál Martin wouldn’t agree with many of her views, she added, but she wasn’t in politics to agree with him all the time.

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