Anger as nearly 30 Dublin councillors excluded from new local policing forums
Twenty nine Dublin city councillors will be excluded from participating in new local policing forums due to incoming changes to the model.
Joint Policing Committees (JPC) are being replaced with the government’s new Local Community Safety Partnerships (LCSP), which means less of a say from local councillors.
The council’s elected representatives had a more pivotal role in the previous system, where all councillors could attend their local JPC.
Under the new model, bodies like the HSE, child protection agency Tusla and resident, community and business groups will be brought in as equal partners, alongside elected representatives and gardaí.
However, in the new model, each local area will have a maximum of seven slots for councillors, out of a total of up to 30 places.
For example, the North Central ward of the city, represented by 17 councillors, will now have to exclude 10 councillors from their LCSP.
In total, 29 Dublin city councillors will now no longer be able to attend meetings related to the safety of their local community.
The issue came to a head at Dublin City Council’s (DCC) monthly meeting on Monday, when councillors approved the list of representatives nominated for participation in the new forum.
“We’re being asked by the minister to dismiss nine members of the [Dublin South East] JPC who currently have a right to sit on it,” Labour councillor Dermot Lacey said.
“In addition to that, a number of statutory agencies, which are already unaccountable to the public, are being given an equal status to elected representatives.”
Mr Lacey said there was “no way on Earth” that an Oireachtas committee would be expected to allow “unaccountable public servants” to participate as equals in their discussions.
Independent councillor Cieran Perry agreed, saying it was “absolutely disgraceful” that some very active councillors will no longer be involved in the meetings.
“We should be trying to encourage as many elected members to involve themselves in such a serious issue as policing in the city,” he said.
“The limitations on the amount of councillors who can go on [the LCSP] is ridiculous.”
Many more councillors agreed with the sentiment, with Sinn Féin’s Micheál MacDonncha saying the search for community representatives was “futile” while excluding councillors from the process.
“The community representatives are the elected councillors, we’re the people who were elected by communities,” he said.
“In many cases there are no community organisations or community associations in some areas, but there are councillors in every area and they should, as of right, be on these bodies.”
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mr Lacey said: “I don’t mean to be arrogant, but elected representatives are not equal to public service bodies. You’re elected to hold public service bodies to account.
“The notion that sitting alongside us as equal partners will be, for example, the HSE, Tusla, or any of these, that’s wrong.”
Regulations formally establishing 36 LCSPs, at least one in every local authority, came into effect at the end of June. The first meeting of an LCSP took place in Wexford at the end of September.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said LCSPs “build upon the good work” of JPCs, and bring together a broader range of stakeholders than the old model.
They said the new structure “recognised the importance of participation by elected representatives”, and that they would “remain central” to the new partnerships.
“Members have now been appointed to 8 Local Community Safety Partnerships. Further members will be appointed in October and November with a view to establishing all Safety Partnerships by the end of the year,” they added.