Cllrs' mixed views on workings of Joint Policing Ctte meetings
Mixed views about the way the Joint Policing Committee for the county was working were expressed by Meath county councillors at their March meeting.
However, some councillors expressed a view that they would prefer JPCs at town rather than county level.
Opening up the debate Fianna Fail Cllr Sean Drew said that he felt the committee worked much better when meetings were held on a local level rather than at a county level.
Independent Cllr Nick Killian thanked the committee for all their work. However, he hit out at aspects of the government plan to replace the JPCs this year with new Local Community Safety Partnerships.
He accused “the mandarins in the civil service” of trying to exclude or edge out councillors from the new arrangements. The new partnerships are provided for in Part 3 of the Policing Security and Community Safety Act 2024 which will operate at local authority level. The role of the JPCs is expected to end during this year.
Cllr Killian said that it was not the first time councillors had been excluded from these type of arrangements and he regarded this as a bad move.
Fine Gael Cllr Paddy Meade said that Meath had the lowest Garda numbers per head of population in the country.
Fine Gael Cllr Maria Murphy said that as vice-chair of the JPC she had found the county committee “very productive” in the past year. She said that for the first time since she had gone onto the JPC she found that Chief Superintendent Dollard brought a full management team from each district to the meetings.
“It’s our opportunity to engage with them. While the meeting is across the county and we have reps from the different areas we actually get an opportunity to see a trend developing. For instance, it is possible for us to pass on information to the Gardai about anti-social behaviour. It is possible to liaise with the Gardai and work together”.
A view that the JPC had been “incredibly successful” in its current format was expressed by Independent Cllr Trevor Golden. He said he had served on a JPC at a town level and he found the present county format “far superior”.
An awful lot of work got done and he found the public meetings very useful, particularly the ones held at Ratoath and Bettystown.
“The JPC has a role and its role is not to provide more gardai. That is a function of the Minister and Government so it’s a bit disingenuous to say that is the role of the JPC”.
He said his Independent colleague, Cllr David Gilroy had done great work on road safety, including signage at the GAA grounds to remind people about road safety. That is what the JPC was for and it had done it very well. There had been “excellent engagement” by An Garda Siochana and Meath County Council and things had happened that would not have happened but for the JPC. He also praised the work of Independent Cllr Francis Deane.
Labour Cllr Elaine McGinty said that the last meeting of the JPC had been excellent and it had given ordinary citizens the chance to engage with the system. A real link had been created between people and the Gardai on the ground.