Fine Gael TD Charlie Flanagan has expressed surprise and shock at former RTE economics editor George Lee’s decision to resign from the party. Speaking in NUI Galway on Monday the Fine Gael spokesperson on Justice, Equality and Law Reform said it was a sad day for Fine Gael.
“I’m very sad for George, he was a colleague for a short period of time I think he had a lot to contribute to Fine Gael,” said Deputy Flanagan. “His expectations must have been very high coming from RTE, he must have thought he was going to change the world overnight,” he added. “Politics doesn’t work like that.”
Deputy Flanagan said that he had not realised that Mr Lee had taken issue with Fine Gael. Commenting on Mr Lee’s claims that he had been ‘frozen out’ by leader Enda Kenny, he said: “George said he was totally isolated in Fine Gael and that he didn’t have in any friends within the party. I don’t know what his expectations were, we’re all terribly busy but it’s not a nursery or a social club — we all have work to do.”
Questioning Mr Lee’s decision to return to RTE Deputy Flanagan compared those in the media to spectators at a match: “They can comment, they can criticise and analyse and they can talk about what’s actually happening in a report but we’re really playing on the pitch,” he said. “I thought it was a great move for George to actually come from being a player in the stand to being a player on the pitch and now he wants to go back to the stand, I just can’t understand it because working as an economics correspondent for RTE will not change anything.”
Deputy Flanagan added: “I think he made a mistake but I would like to publicly pay tribute to his performance and role in FG over the past few months.”
The Laois-Offaly TD said that any sort of leadership struggle within Fine Gael would be detrimental and would distract from the party’s policies. He expressed his support for Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny. ”He may not be the most charismatic politician that Ireland ever threw up but he does have great electoral success,” he said. “I feel that he has a great commitment to public service, he’s the longest serving TD in the Dail, you don’t last that long without having great qualities and I think he has those.”
The former solicitor was speaking in NUI Galway on the topic of justice. He said that the greatest threat facing Ireland at the moment is in the area of organised crime. Pointing out that 22 gangland gun murders were carried out last year he said that there have already been five since the beginning of 2010. He suggested that the gardaí should focus their efforts on cutting off the supply of drugs into the country because drugs are the “oxygen” that drives gang crime.
Inadequate security at Irish ports and airports is one Fine Gael’s major security concerns according to Deputy Flanagan. He said that more patrol boats are required to secure Ireland’s 4,300 kilometres of coastline against drug smugglers. He also suggested that more gardaí and customs officers should be assigned to monitor the 40 private airstrips around the country that receive planes from international jurisdictions and which may be in use by drug dealers.
Deputy Flanagan called for a national debate on the role and function of the prison system. Calling the current system “shambolic” Deputy Flanagan said that jail should be reserved as a punishment for serious crimes only, given that it costs the government €100,000 to incarcerate a prisoner for one year.
Community service and restorative justice should instead be examined as alternatives to imprisonment. He proposed the abolishment of the current system whereby there is an automatic 25 per cent reduction in the sentence that a prisoner serves, suggesting that the remission of a sentence should be earned by prisoners through their completion of courses while incarcerated. He pointed out that half of the Irish prison population are illiterate and that one in four prisoners will be back in prison within two years of their release.
Deputy Flanagan also called for a reform of the Department of Justice, saying that it is too large. He put forward his personal view that there is no need to have a Department of Defence for an army that is not engaged in warfare and suggested that the department should be amalgamated with criminal aspects of the current Department of Justice.
He proposed that a Department of Security should be formed to oversee the army, An Garda Síochána, the prison service and the criminal courts. According to Deputy Flanagan, a Department of Civil Law, Equality and Law Reform should also be formed to deal with civil law matters.
More gardaí should be community-based according to Deputy Flanagan and incentives should be offered to gardaí stationed in ‘unattractive’ areas, such as rural communities. Six per cent of gardaí are currently community based but by end of the year Deputy Flanagan hopes that the figure will be 10 to12 per cent. He said: “Ultimately, fifteen to twenty per cent of the Garda force of 14,000 will be designated community gardaí.”
