Council Briefs: Setting up a committee on inclusion, doing more to tackle domestic violence, and closing a gap in community-safety structures

Prioritising inclusion

The lord mayor, Fine Gael Councillor James Geohegan, said at Dublin City Council’s July meeting on Monday, that he will set up a task force or a committee to focus on integration, diversity and inclusion.

He said he had discussed the issue with the council’s chief executive, Richard Shakespeare, and that it would be on the agenda for the next full council meeting – which is scheduled for early September.

The council has two main types of committees, which discuss issues and sometimes make recommendations to the full council on actions to take.

There are area committees, which have a geographic focus, and strategic policy committees (SPCs), which have thematic focus, like housing, transport, or the arts.

Geoghegan said he wasn’t in favour of dedicating an SPC to this constellation of topics, but he did want to set up some type of forum for it.

“It is absolutely my intent to establish either a taskforce, as we did with the Lord Mayor’s taskforce on homelessness,” he said. “Or alternatively a committee of the whole house.”

Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan had submitted a motion calling for the council to establish an SPC to promote social inclusion.

“That would promote diversity and inclusion and would have the proper status of an SPC,” he said. “That is how you really impact policy on the city.”

After Geoghegan had said his bit, Doolan asked for a vote on his motion. But it was number 8 on the list of motions and Geoghegan, chairing the meeting, said he wouldn’t take it out of order, skipping the motions higher up.

“I’m not going to allow queue jumping on this occasion,” Geoghegan said.

Several councillors spoke in favour of the proposal to form a new SPC on integration, diversity and inclusion. As an SPC, it would meet in public, on the council webcast, and it would have resources dedicated to it.

Social Democrats Councillor Catherine Stocker said the homelessness subcommittee does good work but it meets in private and doesn’t have the same status as a full committee.

Sinn Féin Councillor Janice Boylan said she thought integration, diversity and inclusion really need an SPC. “You get more attendance, you have more stability, you’ve more resources and you also have outside bodies and stakeholders,” she said.

An SPC also has non-councillor members, who are usually people with expertise that is directly relevant to the work of the committee.

For example, in the last council term, the transport committee had a member of Dublin Cycling Campaign and a representative of Irish Parking Association, among others.

Green Party Councillor Hazel Chu said that subcommittees are not the same as SPCs.

“There has been an integration framework for the last three years,” she said. Staff are working really hard to deliver but they don’t have the resources of an SPC, she said.

But Fine Gael Councillor Ray McAdam said that he thinks a committee open to all councillors would be better than an SPC, with a specific but limited membership.

Geoghegan said that a report, outlining what SPCs the newly elected council proposes to have, and who the members will be of each, is going out to public consultation.

People can make submissions to that public consultation, including saying they’d like a new SPC for integration, diversity and inclusion, he said.

The council posts its consultations here.

Responding to domestic violence

Also at the July monthly meeting on Monday, People Before Profit Councillor Hazel de Nortúin tabled a motion calling for more resources for local council staff to support people dealing with domestic violence.

Dublin City Council funded research looking at levels of domestic violence in Dublin 10 and launched a report in June, Unveiling the Shadows; Dynamics of Domestic Violence and Abuse.

“Dublin City Council also agrees to recognise their commitment to making safe and liveable communities for all its citizens and therefore agrees to support the Local Area office with adequate resources from additional staff in Housing and Community Development,” says the motion, which was agreed.

Speaking by phone on Tuesday, de Nortúin said the council commissioned the report because frontline workers raised concerns about serious domestic violence in the area.

Council staff in the local area office often come across domestic violence cases, says de Nortúin.

Victims might come to them for help with housing, or neighbours might complain about issues like property damage, shouting, or violence.

“It could be a case of someone’s windows being put in, screaming and shouting the guards being called,” she says.

Youth services, council staff and other agencies need to be proactive in identifying domestic violence, de Nortúin says.

Council staff should be trained in trauma-informed care, and given the support and resources they need to intervene in such difficult situations, she says.

The report, Unveiling the Shadows, notes the prevalence of intergenerational trauma in disadvantaged areas with high levels of unemployment and a shortage of services.

“By integrating focused community programmes and professional training efforts, Dublin 10 can more effectively challenge the cycle of domestic violence, leading to healthier future generations free from the burden of intergenerational trauma,” it says.

It recommends, among other things,  improving legal supports for victims, increased access to refuge accommodation, domestic violence training for frontline staff, and rolling out educational programmes in the community.

Beyond preparing existing council staff to help people suffering domestic violence, de Nortúin says she wants a separate service working on the issue.

“My aim is to get a dedicated domestic violence service specifically for D10,” she said, which includes Ballyfermot, Sarsfield Road, and Cherry Orchard.

Stop-gap policing forums

Dublin City Council plans to establish temporary policing forums, to ensure that engagement between the council, the local community and the Gardaí continues while new community safety partnerships are being established.

For years, joint policing committees brought together public representatives with council managers, the Gardaí and others. But the government has decided to make a change, and replace those.

A new structure, with broader membership, was piloted in the north inner-city for the last couple of years.

Called “local community safety partnerships”, they also include local community and youth workers, more resident representatives, Tusla, the HSE, and others.

Despite criticisms of how the one in the north inner-city worked during the pilot phase, the government is rolling this new structure out.

Dublin City Council’s lord mayor, Fine Gael Councillor James Geoghegan, said at the council’s July meeting on Monday, that following the introduction of legislation introduced to establish community safety partnerships the old joint policing committees are no longer running.

But Geoghegan said it would take several months to get the new partnerships up and running throughout the city. So there’s a gap.

In the meantime the council “could re-establish a forum whereby members would still have a framework of direct engagement similar or akin to the joint policing committee”.

He proposed the council establish a city-wide forum as well as one in each local council area. His fellow councillors agreed to do that.

Labour Councillor Dermot Lacey asked if all local public representatives would be invited to attend the local forums.

Geoghegan said they would, and that the Gardaí were willing to engage in the new structures until the new community safety partnerships are up and running.

Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan welcomed the move, and the establishment of the community safety partnerships, which he said helps to ensure that the Gardaí are accountable to communities.