Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. I will say at the outset that the dissolution of the joint policing committees, JPC, and creation of the community safety partnerships, CPC, is arguably a major shift in that interface between public representation and policing. We very much support the theory of community safety partnerships because safety cannot just be about policing. We cannot police our way to safer communities. It has to be much broader than that in terms of the education, environment and health pieces and all the other factors. We very much support the concept of broadening it out, but there is a key issue as to how the new community safety partnerships are actually anchored.

I will speak to our amendments Nos. 68, 71, 73 and 77. These are very much about ensuring that the partnerships are in the first instance anchored within the local authorities and with regard to amendment No. 73 to section 114, rather than the safety partnerships being set up by ministerial regulation by the Minister, that they are actually established by the local authorities themselves.

Second, with regard to the consultation the Minister has set out in section 114 to consult with other relevant Ministers, we need to see an insertion there to consult with local authority associations, that is, the representative groups that represent local authority members in this country, namely, the Local Authority Members Association, LAMA, and the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG. Again, if we are to see a successful roll-out of the CSPs then we have to have some understanding of those who have already been serving on the JPCs and, as I said, to have it anchored within local authorities.

The other key issues with regard-----