Seanad debates

Thursday, 28 November 2019

Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters

Closed-Circuit Television Systems Provision

10:30 am

Photo of Tim LombardTim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the response. We are very much aware of the grants available. I believe Cork County Council has drawn down nine of those grants. Four of them are in limbo at the moment over the running costs and who controls the data. Cork County Council has taken a different view from any other local authority. It has an issue with the data and the running costs. The four schemes, particularly the one in Bandon, have been impacted by that. It is a unique situation.

I call for deep and meaningful discussions between the Department of Justice and Equality and Cork County Council to get a solution to this problem. The legislation is there and we have the will and the budget. We need that interaction between the Department of Justice and Equality officials and Cork County Council officials to overcome the problem. This is nothing more than big government not talking to local government and not having an understanding of the issues on the ground. As a result, Bandon does not have a CCTV system in place even though contracts for some of these schemes were signed three years ago. We have the budget and the grant approval. We now need that deep and meaningful conversation. Otherwise we will just be sending emails and doing feasibility reports with nothing happening on the ground.

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