Guards not barred from Lough Foyle

A spokesperson for the Irish Department of Justice and Equality said no instructions regarding the jurisdiction of the Lough have been issued and that any issues of criminality encountered by Gardaí on patrol will be investigated.

The statement follows Sinn Féin TD Pádraig MacLochlainn’s controversial claim in the Oireachtas that “local gardaí on the County Donegal side of Lough Foyle have stated that they have instructions to take no action below the high water level of the Lough as they have no jurisdiction there.”

The Sentinel was also contacted by a member of the public from the Moville area who claimed that when an untethered boat foundered on rocks below the high water mark a Guard claimed they would have to contact the PSNI.

But according to the Justice Department: “The Minister has been informed that local Garda management have advised that no instructions regarding the jurisdiction of the area referred to have issued and that any incidents of criminality reported to An Garda Síochána or encountered while on patrol will be investigated and where appropriate a file will be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions.”

The Sentinel also contacted the PSNI to ask who was responsible for investigating crimes that took place on the British seabed of Lough Foyle when the tide was out on the Inishowen shore.

A PSNI spokesperson confirmed that the untethered boated was outside its jurisdiction but said “incidents on the river” - rather than on the Lough’s seabed which is owned by the Crown Estate - are dealt with by the police force at the nearest land border.

“The boat incident occurred in Moville County Donegal which is outside our jurisdiction,” the spokesperson said.

“Incidents on the river are investigated by the law enforcement agency who has jurisdiction which is established by the location of the land border.”

Legislation does exist allowing each jurisdiction to treat and deal with a specific range of offences committed in the others jurisdiction as if it had occurred in their own. This includes the Criminal Law Act 1975 in Northern Ireland and the Criminal law Jurisdiction Act 1976 in the Republic of Ireland.

But the spokesperson explained that the 1975 act is “only applied where offenders commit Extra-territorial offences which are crimes in one jurisdiction and caught in another. They can elect to be tried in either.”