JPC, Oct ‘06 - A clarification
October 13th, 2006There is a piece in this week’s Tirconaill Tribune about last week’s meeting of the Joint Policing Committee, which has two points I’d like to clarify.
First the article claims that “Fianna Fail and Independent Fianna Fail” came together to block Cllr Jim Lynch becoming Deputy Chairman of the Committee. This is inaccurate. There was an open vote, in which two of the five Fianna Fail Councillors voted for Councillor Lynch.
Later, the article states that the Committee will be ineffective as it will only meet a limited number of times in the year. This comes from a misunderstanding of the Guidelines, which state JPCs should meet at least twice a year. This has been read as saying we will only meet twice per year. Since establishment in June, this Committee has already met twice and we have the date set for our next meeting (November 27th). I fully intend to keep this level of schedule throughout my term as Chairman of the JPC, which will be at least two years (again, under the guidelines).
The JPC is a great innovation in terms of community involvement with Policing. Together with the rest of the Committee, I am committed to ensuring we get the most from our position as one of the Pilot schemes.