Seven months on jpcs to be finally held this week

Paul Neilan

Joint Policing Committees will finally again be held this week after the membership was decided and guidelines received from the government.
The forum on crime in the county starts up again on Friday but had not been held since April, prior to the last local elections.
The hold up was that the council was told by the Department of Local Government to wait on holding another meeting - usually they occur every two months - until guidelines coinciding with the reorganisation of town councils were received from the Department of Justice.
In June, the reformed council’s nominations to the various committees were completed in all but two groups: the JPC and Breffni Integrated Ltd.
The council’s, the gardaí’s, the executive’s and the Oireachtas' members have now all been decided but, under the new guidelines, six members of community groups have yet to be nominated and approved.
In September, when asked about the delay, a council spokesperson said: “We’re in the dark as to what the changes are and are still waiting on the department to come back to us.”
Justice came back to the Celt on the same September query saying that “revised guidelines for the operation of JPCs, which were approved by the Minister in August 2014” were sent to councils.
The last time a meeting was held the Minister For Justice was Alan Shatter and the Garda Commissioner was Martin Callinan - both are no longer at their posts.
At that meeting, the chair of the JPC, former councillor Sean McKiernan backed a call for more gardaí for the Cavan-Monaghan District in the face of “ongoing increased incidents of crime in the region”.
Since then, the county was rocked by the double murder of Dublin men Eoin O’Connor and Anthony Keegan, whose bodies were discovered dumped on Inchycup Island on Lough Sheelin.

'Eleventh hour’
Cavan County Council Cathaoirleach Shane P O’Reilly said the delay was “typical of the department when you consider the eleventh-hour nature of giving us the format for the municipals on the eve of the meeting in a document called Local Government in Action, which had no thought put into it whatsoever. I would like to see it given more teeth, more powers because there is absolutely no point in holding a JPC just for the sake of it”.
The so-far appointed members to the 25-person committee are councillors Niamh Smyth, Shane P O’Reilly, Clifford Kelly, Fergal Curtin, John Paul Feeley, all FF; Winston Bennett, Carmel Brady, Peter McVitty, Paddy Smith, Madeleine Argue, all FG; Damien Brady, Noel Connell, Paddy McDonald, all SF; Chief Superintendent James Sheridan, Superintendent James Coen, gardaí; Deputy Brendan Smith, Senator Diarmuid Wilson, Deputy Joe O’Reilly, Oireachtas; Ger Finn, Chief Executive of Cavan County Council and Gráinne Boyle, Community & Enterprise. Six community members will be nominated by the existing committee members on Friday.