Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for being here. I apologise that I had to step out for a moment but the parts of the meeting I was here for made for a very interesting discussion. The first issue I wanted to picked up on is local accountability mechanisms. It is an element of the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. I will first direct some questions on structures in place in the North to Assistant Chief Constable Todd. I understand the policing and community safety partnerships, PCSPs, are more advanced and robust than the joint policing committees, JPCs, in the South. Will Assistant Chief Constable Todd give us a general sense of what a typical PCSP meeting involves? What are the general functions of these partnerships and how effective are they? How much community buy-in exists in the different communities?

I also have questions for the two lads from An Garda Síochána. In terms of the JPCs and the policing fora, it is not immediately clear to me from the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland's report what the division of labour between the two will be in future. In my experience, the community fora are much more effective and there is much more community interest in them. The JPCs can often amount to information sessions for members of local authorities. That is the responsibility of local authority members and Oireachtas Members too as they often do no more than ask questions. Nonetheless, there is more meaty engagement and, if is not quite the case that more formal decisions are taken, there is at least more general agreement to action things at the policing fora. There seems to be more of a focus on that in the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland but I am not entirely clear on what a JPC should do as of now. I would welcome observations from the representatives of An Garda Síochána on how either of these two accountability mechanisms could be strengthened.