Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The amendments in this grouping concern section 114,l which provides for the making of regulations to establish new local community safety partnerships, LCSPs. These new partnerships will, on a phased basis, replace the existing joint policing committees, JPCs, with a new broader type of body, built around a key principle of the Bill that community safety is not just a matter for An Garda Síochána. While the local authority, the county and city councillors, in any area will undoubtedly continue to play a key role in the new partnerships, the purpose of this new framework is to ensure that all stakeholders involved take on a similar key role in helping to ensure our communities are safe.

I have not set out exact membership and leadership of these partnerships in the primary legislation. This is not the approach taken to the current committees and it is also less flexible. Instead, I have left the detail to be worked out through a combination of guidance and regulations while also committing to further engagement with councillors and their representative bodies. As an additional gesture of reassurance, I have introduced these amendments to the Bill, which confirm that nothing in the upcoming regulations shall prevent a city or county councillor from becoming a chairperson or vice chairperson of a new partnership. This ensures that the model is capable of accommodating the best possible membership and leadership for each partnership based on its own requirements and individual circumstances.

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