Maurice Hayes (Independent)

Senator Mansergh referred to the Patten proposals in regard to this amendment. The rationale behind the Patten proposal, as Senator Mansergh highlighted, is that policing is far more than just police work. It requires the co-operation of various agencies including those in education, youth work, social work, probation services, local councils in respect of lighting and so on. It was thought that this was the forum in which those agencies could be brought together to discuss those areas.

Will the Minister clarify whether he foresees a single joint committee for each local authority area? It needs to involve the local authority areas in some way or the Garda command divisions aligned to local authority boundaries. It may be that in large local authorities — I am thinking of the cities — it would be desirable to break those down to get them as near to people as possible. Generally, however, like Senator Mansergh, I welcome this reduction.