Louth TD presses for clarity on new safety partnerships

The establishment of community safety partnerships, which will replace the Joint Policing Committees (JPCs), is to happen “very soon” Justice Minster Jim O’Callaghan has told Dundalk TD Ruairí Ó Murchú.

The Sinn Féin TD raised the delay in establishing the partnerships with the justice minister in Leinster House last week and while he welcomed the news that they are to be set up very soon, he said there remained “questions about the membership, especially about which elected representatives will be on it and how they will operate and who can be the chairs.”

Deputy Ó Murchú said: “The biggest issue is the timeline. If the Minister has any proposal to make changes, what are they and how does he propose they will happen? Could we not even have the possibility of the JPC operating in the interim?”

Minister O’Callaghan said: “I hope to sign regulations providing for the rules and mechanisms for these community safety partnerships in the very near future. I do not want to give the Deputy a specific date.

“I have also signed into law the order required for the purpose of establishing the steering group that will be necessary to evaluate these new community partnerships. They will enable individuals who are local representatives of the community to talk to gardaí and agencies like the HSE, Tusla and Cuan in order to ensure there is a proper discussion of the important information that needs to be communicated in respect of a local community.

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“Over the course of preparing the necessary regulations to establish the partnerships, it became clear they would have to elect a chair from within their membership”.

In response, Deputy Ó Murchú said: “The main thing is that ‘very soon’ needs to be very soon. Would it be possible to have the JPCs operating in the short term?

“We all spoke about the loss of Garda Kevin Flatley. We had a garda in Ardee on routine patrol who was injured in the last while and we know of the huge issues there are with crime.

“Great strides have been made with organised crime recently in my constituency, but we need to do a lot more. It is necessary we have a fit-for-purpose means of engagement with the other statutory agencies along with the Garda, because sometimes the Garda ends up carrying the can for the HSE and others”.