Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 86:

In page 30, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following: "Role of Mayor on safety partnerships

38.The Mayor shall be the chairperson of their local safety partnership."

It is a coincidence that my three amendments are together in a row. We will move on. I hope we will make progress on this amendment, which relates to the role of the mayor in the local safety partnership. We have had some discussion about this already. It is an important amendment.

As the Minister of State knows, we had extensive debate in the House on the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023. I engaged extensively with councillors in Limerick and all over the country on the issue addressed in this amendment, which is of real concern. I am suggesting that council cathaoirligh throughout the country, and, in this case, the mayor of Limerick, would be central to and would chair the local partnership. There has been a lot of heated discussion about this and I do not want to rehash those arguments from the debate on the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill. The Minister of State is aware of them. This amendment proposes that the mayor shall be the chairperson of the local safety partnership.

The Policing, Security and Community Safety Act was signed into law the President. The Minister for Justice or the Government will decide on commencing sections of that legislation. The Minister is committed to bringing in regulations. We are dealing now with primary legislation to provide for the first directly elected mayor in the country. It is important that this provision be embedded in the primary legislation rather than being dealt with in regulation. I have past experience of other legislation dealing with local government, when the then Minister came in and said certain provisions had to be done by regulation. The numbers were different in the previous Seanad and, suddenly, the Minister took a briefing and came back to say he would embed the proposal in question into the primary legislation.

My objective today is to have it inserted in this Bill that the mayor shall be the chairperson of the new local safety partnership in whatever form it comes about. Notwithstanding that the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act passed all Stages, there was a lot of division and tension around it. I will not go into too much more detail. I would like to hear the Minister of State's response before I comment further with a few other key points. I had an email yesterday pointing to the process in other places. I know Limerick is not New York but the mayor in that city has full powers to appoint the city police commission. It is the same in cities in Australia, Barcelona, Malaga and many other jurisdictions across the European Union. The mayor is critically important to policing. We need strong, safe and well policed communities. We know the importance of the role of municipal and local authorities and their elected members in terms of co-operation with policing. We know the success of the joint policing committees. There have been some concerns in that regard, with some Oireachtas Members who are members of those committees being unable to give them the time needed due to the pressure of their own work. Many of our city and county councillors feel this is really important work.

I hope there will not be any difficulty with this proposal and that the Minister of State will support the mayor of Limerick being the chairperson of the local safety partnership. I do not want to tie his hands beyond Limerick because a wider provision is not fully within his remit and brief, but the role of the mayor of Limerick is within that remit. We want to send a strong message. The Minister of State is committed to this legislation and to ensuring there will be an election for mayor. We spoke earlier about strong key measures on economics, housing and regeneration. This is another key issue. It is one of only two issues I will be speaking about in the entire Bill. My amendments are about ensuring we have safe, well-managed and secure communities where citizens can feel free to go about their business and to live and work in a safe place.

The Minister of State knows the challenges around policing in Limerick, as do I. They are not different from the challenges in policing in any other part of the country, whether at city or county level. I do not mean to single out Limerick over and above anywhere else but we are talking about Limerick and the need to make the role of mayor important and relevant. The Minister of State will know from his own feedback and research, and a substantial amount of work has been done on this, that citizens really value feeling safe in walking, moving about and working in their communities. Leadership is important in that regard. This is a front-of-house issue and it is a really important role for the mayor. I will come back in after the Minister of State has responded.