Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join with my colleagues who spoke about the man who was invited to the White House on St. Patrick's Day. What an insult to the Irish people to bring somebody over there who had been forced to pay a young woman €250,000 for the horrific way he treated her, and to watch a female in the White House introduce him and say how delighted, proud and fitting it was for this thug to speak to the American people. It was outrageous.

The Leader will recall in the last session of the previous Dáil that we debated the local community safety partnership Bill. It had quite a fractious passage through this House. The joint policing committees were in place until that Bill was passed but the Minister, Deputy McEntee, on 20 March assured Deputy Dillon that the JPCs would remain in place until the local partnerships have been set up. Drogheda Councillor Paddy McQuillan contacted me this morning. It is over a year since they had a meeting with the police in Drogheda. We all know Drogheda had its own problems and the Garda did a fantastic job of shutting down the criminal activity there. Councillor McQuillan is somewhat concerned that without JPC meetings and pending the local community safety partnership being set up, there is a rise in criminality and no way to bring that to the attention of the Garda and find out what the Garda is doing about it. I ask that we find out exactly what is the situation, whether the JPCs can meet and, if they can, how soon they can meet.