Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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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.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for raising this issue. To create safe communities, we must go beyond policing alone, we must work together in partnership. We must take a strategic, solution-focused approach that is proactive rather than reactive. Local community safety partnerships represent a significant step towards a more collaborative, responsive, and locally driven model of public safety. I am pleased that members have been appointed to eight local community safety partnerships. Further members will be appointed across October and November with a view to establishing all safety partnerships by the end of the year. I know in my own local authority area of Limerick City and County Council, at this month's municipal and metropolitan area meetings they are discussing and populating the LCSP.

The first meeting of an LCSP took place in Wexford on 30 September, when members elected their own chair and vice chair.It is anticipated that the other partnerships will hold their first meetings in the coming weeks. I will get the Senator clear guidance on the election or appointment of the chairpersons but I know that local authorities did ask for expressions of interest, at least in Limerick. I am sure other local authorities put out a call for expressions of interest from people who would be interested in being considered for election as chairperson.

The LCSPs are designed to empower communities by giving residents, local groups and businesses a meaningful voice in shaping local safety initiatives. They will play a major role in enhancing public safety alongside An Garda Síochána, residents, businesses and State agencies. The Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024, which the Minister commenced on 2 April 2025, provides for the establishment of local community safety partnerships, which will operate at each local authority level. The regulations for these safety partnerships came into operation on Monday, 30 June and a total of 36 LCSPs can now be established. Each safety partnership will be led by a voluntary chair and supported by a full-time co-ordinator and administrator. The chair will be elected from, and by, the membership of the partnership. The role of chairperson is pivotal to the partnerships achieving their full potential.

Guidance and support in the process of establishing LCSPs is being given by the National Office for Community Safety and by LCSP co-ordinators and administrators, who are full-time staff based in the relevant local authority and resourced by the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration. These full-time permanent staff posts are resourced by the Department and employed by the relevant local authority. In preparation for the establishment of the partnerships, local authorities have been recruiting these staff and so far, 27 co-ordinators and 20 administrators have been appointed across the country. The appointment of members to further safety partnerships across the country will follow in the coming weeks. We only draw on our experience from our own area, but I know that local members of An Garda Síochána have been attending local municipal area meetings individually outside the function of the safety partnerships.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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There is an inconsistency in this regard because that does not happen in many of the Dublin local area committees. The structure in the cities is slightly different from that in the counties. I thank the Minister of State for setting out his stall. There is a lot of work done, with more to do. We need consistency. We can see how few local authority areas have got the bodies up and running so there is a lot of work to do. There is a lot of recruitment and engagement to be done. The Government should trust our city and county councillors to continue to take the lead in this really important work. We should remember that they are democratically elected. They are representative of communities - minorities, majorities and other stakeholders. They have a mandate. Not too many people around the table have the mandate they have. They have a very strong mandate to represent their communities and are best placed at the heart of local communities to represent all stakeholders equally.

I commend the Garda Commissioner, Justin Kelly, on his announcement of the appointment of the first Garda rural crime lead. It is a very positive step. I join the deputy president of the IFA, Alice Doyle, who issued a statement last night strongly welcoming the appointment of Superintendent Michael Corbett as An Garda Síochána's first rural crime lead. This is another important facet of community policing, particularly in rural areas. I salute the Garda Commissioner for that appointment and the recognition of the need for a lead in rural communities. I acknowledge the support for that appointment from the deputy president of the IFA.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I join the Senator in acknowledging the appointment of Superintendent Michael Corbett as An Garda Síochána's first rural crime lead. I spoke to him recently at the National Ploughing Championships when we launched our new rural safety strategy. I sit on the national rural safety forum and have attended its meetings. It is fantastic in respect of our approach to ensuring our communities are as safe as possible and reassuring people, particularly in rural Ireland, that our communities are being policed and that we are doing our utmost to ensure people feel safe in their homes and communities. Superintendent Corbett is a fantastic choice by the Garda Commissioner. I note the comments of the deputy president of the IFA, Alice Doyle, who co-chairs the national rural safety forum. She is doing a fantastic job in that role along with Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman.

Given the experience of the joint policing committees - I sat on the Limerick joint policing committee, which was a fantastic forum - I regret that Oireachtas Members will not be sitting on the LCSPs but that does not mean that as public representatives, we cannot interact with An Garda Síochána. We interact and will continue to do so. That is our job as public representatives. The new safety partnerships provide for a broader reach and inclusion of stakeholders, which is not a bad thing. They do not provide as much for local authority members but drawing on my experience in Limerick, there is no reason that across the country, local municipal or metropolitan areas cannot interact with An Garda Síochána on their agenda in the same way they meet any other group in the public service.