Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

These amendments concern Chapter 4, dealing with the establishment of joint policing committees by local authorities. These provisions have generated a great deal of interest in the Seanad, transcending political lines and party positions. We have already made changes to section 30 to bring in representation on these committees at town council level and we have moved away completely from the county and city development board model that was provided for in the Bill as published. During the debate on Committee Stage, the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, was also sympathetic to certain points made regarding the guidelines provided for in section 31 and we have moved some way towards the changes sought in earlier amendments tabled by the Labour and Fine Gael Senators.

I will now outline the main changes. In section 31 we have agreed to use "shall" instead of "may" regarding the issue of the guidelines. This will require a change in the role of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The existing wording refers to his or her consent, but with a mandatory provision it would have to change to a consultative role, as it is not possible to oblige a person to agree.

A second point also arises from the use of the word "shall". This was drawn to the attention of the House by the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan. Without it means nothing in the sense that section 31 and even the whole chapter could be put on hold if the view was taken and acted upon that it required the making of a commencement order under section 2(1) to bring its provisions into effect. Accordingly, reflecting the importance with which I regard these provisions and which is also reflected in the views of the many Senators who contributed to the debate on this matter, the new provision will contain the words "as soon as practicable after the passing of the Act".

In accordance with the wishes of all the Senators who spoke and in tandem with our own thinking in the matter, the provisions of section 31(2) on the making of the guidelines has been expanded to include the points that were made concerning, for example, Members of the Oireachtas, not just the Dáil, being on the committee; nomination of members by local authorities; the appointment of a chairperson from the local authority members; nomination by the Garda Commissioner of adequate rank and seniority; the establishment of subcommittees; the term of office of the committee; the application of qualified privilege; the attendance of bodies and persons before the committee; an enabling type of provision to allow for the guidelines to deal with the attendance of Members of the Oireachtas; and the circumstances in which meetings of the committee may be held other than in public.

A related amendment to section 32(2)(c) deals with the hosting of public meetings. The House will note that the text of this section in the version of the Bill printed as amended in Committee already contains a similar provision. This arises from the fact that, during the debate on Committee Stage on amendment No. 51 tabled by the Fine Gael Senators, we indicated our acceptance of the point. We meant to convey that we intended to table an official amendment with the appropriate wording. However, the text of the Fine Gael amendment has been carried into the Bill in its original form, which was not exactly what I had intended. If I did not make myself clear, I apologise to the Chair and the House. I accept responsibility for the fact that the Fine Gael Senators got away with it.