Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2024-01-24
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Shane Cassells (FF), Labour Panel

I welcome the constructive discussion here this afternoon. The one thing that has been pressed by all people as pertaining to this section is to ensure the best outcome for communities. Senator Boyhan said that he wrote to all the councillors who were members of joint policing committees and talked about their positive engagement with this Bill. The Oireachtas Members play a very important role on JPCs as well. I always make sure that I attend the meetings of the policing committees in County Meath. It is great that we have the Minister for Justice, as a representative of a Meath constituency, who is herself a regular attendee at our meetings. Indeed, she engaged outside of those meetings with the business community and An Garda Síochána when issues pertaining to crime and antisocial behaviour were prominent last year in our major towns. I cannot say that for all of the Oireachtas Members in County Meath. Quite a few of them go on about crime ad nauseam. They stick pictures of themselves on lampposts about crime but, by God, when they have the opportunity to meet the chief superintendent or the Minister for Justice, they are absent and missing. You would nearly have to ring the guards who work in the missing persons section to find them.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2024-01-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2024-01-24