Victor Boyhan (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Collins to the House. I appreciate him coming. He has vast experience and involvement in local community policing and recognises its importance. County councillors from all parties, including the Minister of State's, and Independents have raised serious concerns about the Department of justice decision to scrap joint policing committees. I am a pragmatist and a realist. Those decisions were endorsed by the Houses of the Oireachtas. I tabled a number of amendments on to this in support of some of the concerns of the councillors who contacted me through their representative bodies, LAMA and the AILG. However, they were not successful. The reality is that we have to deal with what is on the ground now. The Minister of State knows that from 2006, the joint policing committees worked very well. They were a collaboration between An Garda Síochána, community representatives, volunteers, educational stakeholders, business and enterprise stakeholders and more. They were engaged with minority groups and so on. It was overall a good experience and a collaborative approach that worked well. Any garda you meet, from the lowest to the highest rank, will tell you that the joint policing committees worked well and were collaborative. That is critically essential when dealing with community issues, particularly in the area of community policing.

We now have local community safety partnerships, LCSPs. The concern expressed by county councillors on the ground and indeed by Senators and Deputies who were at the table for joint policing committee meetings is that they are perceived as an erosion of local democracy, engagement and accountability. I refer also to the knowledge of local politicians, be they Oireachtas Members or councillors, who represent their constituencies. One of the great things about our democracy is that our politicians are on the ground. I have no doubt the Minister of State will be around Limerick later today and tomorrow. Accessibility to our politicians at all levels is good and they are picking up information all the time themselves. Many councillors, Deputies and Senators will no longer have a seat at the table to engage with the garda responsible in the context of the LCSPs. Of course they will have opportunities to engage as gardaí and public representatives like to engage, and that is an important point to make. It has been put to me that the structures are fundamentally undemocratic. They are reducing the role of the elected members and increasing the power to statutory bodies. Statutory bodies have many opportunities to convey their concerns for their stakeholders and the groups and segments they represent. Is it really necessary to put them in on this structure? Councillors will say that their powers, audience and right to be heard are now becoming limited. We have seen the erosion of many aspects of the role of our city and county councillors.

I know that the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan will reject many of these arguments. He has said on the record that he has considered the matters. I am asking for clarity. If not today, maybe the Minister of State's officials could send out a briefing note on it. Who will actually chair each of these 31 new policing partnerships? Is it fully open to a city or county councillor to be considered? Some of them are being told "No", or that they have to go through different processes. There is inconsistency across the 31 local authorities. We need some clarity on that. Could the Department could send out a memo to sitting county councillors in order that they can understand what is going on? I am asking the Minister of State to take it back to the Department. We need to trust our city and county councillors. We need to engage with them and empower them in this collaborative approach with An Garda Síochána for policing. I know the Minister of State has every confidence in our city and county councillors, as I do, to engage respectfully and meaningfully on behalf of their communities. The issue is when all of these 31 committees will be established. Let us engage with our city and county councillors on this issue and give them as much information as possible. I ask for uniformity and consistency in the approach in supporting our city and county councillors in local community policing.