Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support our amendment to this motion, which is important. It is a pity the Government motion does not recognise the problems in the Garda force and in the justice system at present. There is a great a lack of morale and great difficulties. Crime rates are increasing. Members of the public do not have any confidence in the crime rates because some people are afraid to report crimes and there are other allegations that crimes are not reported in the way that they should be.

On the joint policing committees, which are the subject of the motion, it is good that we are having a discussion on them. I have not found them to be very effective bodies. Part of the reason is that up to the time of the local elections we had a joint policing committee for the towns in County Meath, including Trim, Navan and Kells. The one in Kells worked relatively well because it had a defined small geographical area but the County Meath joint policing committee was a difficult one because the county and Garda division of Meath are very large. It was difficult for people to find issues on which they could have commonality to discuss at the meeting. I do not know what the plans are for the future joint policing committees but I would very much suggest that the county ones be removed and that they would be put down to municipal district level and perhaps over time Garda districts and municipal districts could coincide, which they more or less do in County Meath at present. There is huge in that regard. They would work much better at municipal district level than at county level. I am not sure what the involvement of the local authority staff is or should be.

It is a waste of resources to have local authority staff on these committees. These committees should be a forum between the gardaí and the local representatives. I am not sure what the local authority adds to it. It involves resources that the local authorities do not have to deploy to meetings. I get the impression that the staff who are doing it are so busy with other matters that they do not have, or should not be given, the time to deal with this issue. This would be far more effective if the gardaí, the local representatives and the Oireachtas Members met without reference to the local authority. The local authority has enough to do.

One should do it at municipal district level, perhaps with the local district superintendent. Provided the media took an interest because one can raise issues, these could be effective fora for discussion. We are losing the town committees and we need a replacement for them, and the municipal district provides such a forum. I have called for that for quite some considerable time.

When joint policing committees first started in 2008, I was excited at the prospect of them coming into being but I have not seen them work as effectively as they should. I am a supporter of the concept but it needs to be much more localised.

They have not started back up in County Meath. I do not know whether the same is the case around the country. Have they started in other counties?