The joint training programme in the US involving the Garda and RUC is prejudicing the work of the Northern Ireland Policing Commission and should be cancelled, the Sinn Fein TD Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain has said.
The programme, which is being run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, would be used as "propaganda" by the RUC to counter demands for the force's disbandment, Mr O Caolain said.
Citing a Dail reply from the Minister for Justice, in which Mr O'Donoghue said the training was aimed at "developing and maintaining community confidence in both forces", he said: "The minister is seriously in error if he is equating the relationship between people in the 26 counties and the gardai with that between communities in the six counties and the RUC." The broad mass of the nationalist community in the North have no confidence in the RUC, he said.
