Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 1281: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the fact that Waterford City Council officials have informed members of the JPC that it cannot hold public meetings until additional guidelines are produced by his Department in view of the fact that Letterkenny JPC have conducted two public meetings, the existing guidelines published on 23 May 2007 governing both Waterford JPC and Letterkenny JPC make provisions for the conduct of public meetings and his response to a parliamentary question on 7 November 2007 that it is the responsibility of each JPC to fulfil the provisions of those guidelines. [2525/08]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 1282: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if any JPC has rolled out the neighbourhood policing fora provided for in the guidelines governing JPCs. [2526/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1281 and 1282 together.

The Joint Policing Committees currently established in a pilot phase operate under revised guidelines issued by my predecessor as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in May 2007, following consultations with the Ministers for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. These guidelines revised the original guidelines issued in June 2006 so as to enable the establishment of a number of additional Committees to take place. There are currently 29 Committees in operation. The purpose of the pilot phase is to gain experience from the operation of a number of Committees in a variety of local authority areas before rolling them out to all local authority areas in the State. In general the outcome to date has been positive, and the Committees are meeting definite local needs.

The experience gained from the operation of the Committees is currently being evaluated. As a first step in this evaluation my colleague the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and I held a consultation seminar on 29 November, 2007 with participants in the pilot Committees to consider the lessons from their operation to date in preparation for the roll out. The seminar was a very useful exercise and following on from it work has commenced on revising the guidelines in the light of the experience gained to date. Following consultation with my Ministerial colleagues I intend to issue guidelines to enable the roll out of the Committees to take place as soon as possible.

Section 10 of the current guidelines provides for the arranging and hosting of public meetings by Joint Policing Committees. The guidelines are drafted in such a way as to enable Committees to operate as effectively and flexibly as possible so as to meet the various needs of their own areas. As part of this approach the guidelines envisage that Committees would hold public meetings at regular intervals.

Section 36 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 provides for the establishment of local policing fora by a Joint Policing Committee as they are considered necessary. The current guidelines provide that supplemental guidelines for the fora will be made at a later date (paragraph 13.3). It is intended that this will happen in the context of the revision of the Committee guidelines. A steering group, chaired by my Department and with membership from An Garda Síochána, the National Drugs Strategy Team and the community sector, has been established to contribute to the development of the supplemental guidelines, and its work is well advanced.