Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 61:

In page 97, between lines 12 and 13, to insert the following: “(i) promoting and supporting the role city and county councillors play within their communities, including but not limited to the duties they had undertaken on joint policing committees before the passing of this Act, the role they play in devising and implementing local strategies relevant to community safety and their involvement within the new safety partnerships, and any national strategy may include a list of recommendations as to how councillors and members of local government can become more involved in issues relating to community safety.”.

I warmly welcome the Minister to the House. I will try to keep my contribution focused. To set the scene, earlier on the Order of Business, there was a proposal by Members on this side of the House that we would deal only with Committee Stage.That would have allowed us and the Minister an opportunity to respond but, unfortunately, that has been taken from us. I want to be clear that this is not the Minister’s fault. The Order of Business is decided by the Members of this House. The record will show, and I will circulate it more widely outside this House, that it was opposed. It is important to put that on the record of the House. Today, the Minister is faced with a decision of this House and its elected Members who have decided that Committee and Final Stages take place today and should conclude within four hours. Hopefully, we will be able to do our business within four hours. It is a somewhat different mood here since the Christmas recess and break. The Minister will have noticed how there was a lot of clarification, which is the prerogative of the Members, but that delayed the process. That is politics and that is the stage we are on.

Earlier, we debated the legislation on the Limerick mayor and subsidiarity. We talked about allowing the citizens to make decisions. In due course, we will be looking at a directly elected mayor for Dublin. Again, we touched on policing there. That is really important. I received some correspondence from Councillor Gail Dunne, president of the Association of Irish Local Government and a press release he issued that is headlined, “European Body Issues Damning Report on Irish Local Government”, which touches on the issue of subsidiarity and resourcing local government. I am not going to rehearse all that. I want to acknowledge Councillor Dunne and the AILG for their advocacy on this particular issue. What is at stake is a county safety partnership. I fully support all that and all the Minister’s endeavours in her portfolio as a valued and respected Minister for Justice. I note the great store she has placed in the regulations. It is very difficult to talk about regulations when we do not have them in front of us yet. I acknowledge what the Minister is saying about having flexibility. She has repeated the word "flexibility" many times today, which I understand. She makes a very valid case about horses for courses, different locations, needs and responses and that policing varies, and there may be different courses of action or appropriate responses depending on where we are geographically. I fully respect that. There is this proposal of having 30 people on it.

Over Christmas, I undertook to do an indexed spreadsheet of every member of every joint policing committee, JPC, that is in place. It was very interesting. I was not able to get it so I decided to do it myself. I wrote to everyone of them. Let me qualify that; I wrote to all the councillors who were on them. I wrote to them, from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and I was quite amazed by the number of them. I did not realise there were so many of them. I got an overwhelming response, which I am more than happy to share subject to their consent. They are very much of the view that they want to stay on the JPCs. They have lobbied hard. They have engaged with Senators and they expect us to advocate for them. They are after all, the electorate for most of us Senators, but ultimately that is a matter for us. This is a public forum. It is a great place. We can do our business. There is a record of how we do our business.

Let us consider the JPCs. I do not want to look in retrospect because the Minister is clearly going to change them, but what are these councillors used to? The aim of JPCs was to develop greater consultation, co-operation and synergy with policing and crime issues between An Garda Síochána, local authorities and elected representatives. They also facilitate the participation of community and voluntary sectors, which Senator Ruane mentioned. The JPCs are the model they would like. I do not care what the name is. We know it will be the policing partnership. We have the chairperson of the local authorities representatives, garda officers nominated by the Commissioner, local authority members and, indeed, Members of the Oireachtas as well as community and voluntary sector representatives. We know what the functions are: serving as a forum for consultation and recommendations on policing and crime and dealing with issues within each local administrative area and the challenges around policing which are also important. As the Minister outlined, they will continue to review levels and patterns of crime and related underlying factors impacting on crime and safety of people in our communities; establish a co-ordinated response, to enale community forum engagement and meet the community stakeholders. I accept all of that. We know what is envisaged.

The section relates to the national strategy for improving community safety. There are a lot of details about the strategy, which the Minister has discussed in great detail. I endeavour to promote and support the role of city and county councillors play in their communities, including but not limited to the duties they had undertaken on JPCs before the passage of the Bill, the role they play in devising and implementing local strategies relevant to communities safety and their involvement in the new strategy and partnerships that the Minister envisages in her legislation and any new national strategy may include her list of recommendations. That is really important.

I had significant engagement from all parties. It was not a party issue. The bottom line was the councillors said they wanted to be involved and be recognised. They did not want any more lip service about devolved government and subsidiarity. They want to play their role. They are members of the Minister’s party and of others. They value the Minister and they see the benefits of what she is doing but they do not want further erosion of their input or local knowledge in community policing. Essentially, they are asking that city and county councils be equal in number in the appointment to safety partnerships as was the case on the JPCs. They want for the numbers involved on the committees to be replicated. I get that sense that she values them genuinely. They want that these members, the valued elected city and county councillors, be accommodated and facilitated in equal measure in the new safety partnership, which I support and which the Minister has set out in the legislation. That is the essence of it. We either value our city and county councillors or we do not. We see a role for them.

It has got to this Stage and let us be honest. This Bill was passed in the Dáil and, therefore, I can understand the Minister’s sense of frustration at times coming into this House. The Bill, with all the concerns it generates, was passed in the Dáil but some people took it upon themselves to raise expectations that they would advocate for and promote change and that, as someone said, they would stymie and block the Minister for Justice and they would get their way for their people out in their cities and counties. This is the day, the time and the hour where we have to do it. I am strongly in favour of it. I say this before I hear the Minister’s response. I will be forced to call a vote on this because the Members of this House chose to complete this business today so we will not have the opportunity to table further amendments. That is somewhat disappointing. It is the Minister’s call, and I will always respect the call of the Minister, but I am strongly advocating now, as I had committed to our councillors up and down the country over the past few weeks, a strong case for their retention in equal measure as the JPCs in the new policing arrangements the Minister has in this Bill. That is bearing in mind flexibility and the various challenges of policing around the country, which are different everywhere. I know the Minister values the committees. I appeal genuinely. We all value our city and county councillors and acknowledge the importance of their role. Clearly, that has been conveyed to many of our councillors from all parties and none. This is the day and the hour we stand in solidarity with our city and county councillors and support them.I hope the Minister can see the logic and bring herself to support what is a very reasonable amendment. There are one or two other amendments coming. I would like that we could go out of here really genuinely committed and show our solidarity with our elected city and county councillors.