Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The pilot phase is essentially over. Once they were completed, general guidelines were introduced and each local authority can now operate a joint policing committee. The legislation prescribes a minimum number of meetings but no maximum for the committees. I was briefly a member of the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown committee and I know it is up to the members of the policing committees to control the agendas, the numbers of meetings held and the issues to be discussed. There is no reason some part of the south Dublin committee area should be excluded from consideration.

Some local authorities are attaching more importance to the committees than others, with some seeing them as an important part of the local architecture while others see them as a nuisance and hold the minimum number of meetings. If the joint policing committee in any area is not operating satisfactorily, it is within the competence of the members of that committee to set an agenda and to determine the number of meetings to be held. The Garda authorities are more than happy to co-operate with them.

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