The new pilot joint policing committees will be in place before the end of the summer, a Dáil committee was told yesterday.
Joint policing committees will be set up in 22 local authority areas around the country initially and will be expanded to the rest of the country following a review of the pilot project, Michael Flahive, assistant secretary at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, told the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights.
The committees will be held in public and will provide a forum in which gardaí, councillors and local community members can consult and make recommendations on matters affecting the policing of their local authority area.
Mr Flahive said that they will review the levels and patterns of crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour in their areas and will discuss the factors contributing to those levels. The committees' membership will be made up on average of 24 people, including local councillors, members of the Houses of the Oireachtas, the local city or county manager, gardaí and representatives from the community and voluntary sector.
The committees are provided for under the Garda Síochána Act 2005, which also provides limited privilege for committee members.
Mr Flahive said that under the legislation, any statement made by any member is protected by privilege, but members are embargoed from naming or discussing individuals and should not discuss a matter if it would prejudice the prevention or detection of a crime. "Once the guidelines are issued, the Minister is anxious that the committees be established as soon as possible."
An information seminar for gardaí and local authority officials is to be held next week, he said, and the councils involved will begin moves to establish the committees at meetings in July.
