Voting pact shapes Dundalk councillors’ appointments to safety committee

At last week’s monthly Dundalk Municipal District meeting councillors voted on which members to appoint to the newly established Local Community Safety Partnership which will replace the old Joint Policing Committees which used to meet every three months.

Each LCSP includes up to 30 members, with at least half from the community, alongside local councillors (two from each Municipal District plus the county cathaoirleach), public services like An Garda Síochána, the HSE, Tusla, and local authorities.

The aim, the government says, is to give communities a stronger voice in shaping safety initiatives.

Fianna Fail councillor Emma Coffey expressed concerns about the new model saying: “I have reservations about this committee. I thought that the JPCs worked well and that there were invested parties in it and I feel that it is a centralised government again taking a top-down approach as opposed to what worked which was community based.

“I feel my own party, who are in government, have dropped the ball and I’m very disappointed in it.

“A lot of people who come to councillors have maybe not bothered going to Gardai and have come to us. The JPC worked, we had open lines of communication.”

She also criticised that any reporting back to the MD from the meetings would be on an informal basis.

“I really don’t hope it’s a case of where we’re back again talking about the stripping of powers from local government.

“We have to fight for our rights as local councillors and for our local community rights and we have to feel safe in it and I feel streamlining something into, and this isn’t directed at anyone, but putting it into a civil service mode does not work on a community level.”

Independent councillor Maeve Yore proposed herself for one of the two available positions on the committee saying, “to my knowledge I’ve been to all JPC meetings” and further stating that as meetings were due to take place during the day she would be a more suitable candidate than councillors who worked fulltime.

Fianna Fail’s Emma Coffey proposed her party colleague Councillor Andrea McKevitt, saying: “Councillor McKevitt is a rural councillor, and I think we need a strong voice on it.”

Meanwhile Fine Gael’s Councillor John Reilly proposed his party colleague Robert Nash and Sinn Fein’s Antoin Watters proposed Councillor Sionainn McCann for his party.

The vote, in which each councillor could vote for two candidates, saw all Fine Gael and Fianna Fail councillors and Independent councillor Ciaran Fisher vote for Nash and McKevitt while Sinn Fein councillors voted for Yore and McCann.

Independent councillor Maeve Yore voted for herself and councillor McCann while Green Party councillor Marianne Butler voted for Councillor McCann and abstained on her second vote.

The final tally saw Councillor Yore with 5 votes; Councillor McKevitt with 7 votes; Councillor Nash with seven votes; Councillor McCann with five votes with one abstention.

Following the vote Councillor Nash remarked: “I do think there’s going to be bumps in the road with this. It’s important that we work together with the reps who are on it and for the members to come back to us if we have an issue. My door is always open.”

Councillor Yore took issue with the voting pact which saw Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Independent Ciaran Fisher hold a majority on Municipal District votes and said: “I want to wish the two of you well. The two of you work fulltime, so I don’t know how it is going to work out for yous.

“We hear this rhetoric locally and nationally all the time about working together to include everybody. And the email that was sent to everybody, the only reply I saw was from myself and Sinn Fein.

“It doesn’t ring true in relation to the pact. The pact will be well represented with the county chairs over the next four years and it’s just very disappointing. Hopefully the voices of the community will be heard and that people will attend the meetings, I’ll be keeping a close eye on the attendance.”

In response Councillor Nash said: “I do work fulltime but I’ve no problem getting a day off. Going back to fairness and equality, we voted you councillor Yore onto the Road Safety Committee and we were happy to vote you onto that, this is for something else so it’s time to give somebody else a chance maybe.”

Councillor Yore interjected, remarking, “One committee from forty-three committees.”

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Councillor Emma Coffey commented regarding councillor Yore’s remarks: “Every time a vote happens you refer to the pact and I think when the chair came to his position he made a point of saying that governments have coalitions and up and down the country there are pacts and Independents have pacts. Aside from that, this was not contained in the pact agreement.”

She said that members should be focussed on expressing their reservations about how the new committee would function.

Councillor Coffey further remarked: “You’re right, there should be active participation and people should attend. I don’t think we should be slagging off people who work fulltime. We’re all here, we all go out and canvas and we all look for our vote and we all work for our communities. We work fulltime, no time and anytime, we’re all here to be a voice for our communities and I think we need to concentrate on that.”