Galway ‘Safety’ Partnership is more like a secret society!

Galway City Community Safety Partnership should be renamed Galway City Community Secret Partnership as it continues to meet in-camera, without media present.

This forum of city stakeholders which replaced the discontinued Galway City Joint Policing Committee, has met at least twice since it was formed late last year.

But media organisations and by extension, the public have not been invited to attend what have become private sessions.

When Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan published guidelines to establish the new committees, he pledged that they would operate “transparently and efficiently”.

He described partnerships to replace JPCs as “a much more collaborative, responsive and locally driven approach to community safety.”

That may be so, but how do we know that it is when the media are excluded from meetings?

The new committee has a greater remit. As well as representatives from community organisations, An Garda Síochána, Galway City Council and local politicians, who were all on the JPCs, now the HSE and Tusla, the child and family agency, are also involved.

Occasionally, these organisations will need to discuss sensitive matters in private. The public understands that is fair enough. And it already happens at local authority meetings, for example, when councillors discuss in private nominations for Freedom of the City awards.

But holding behind-closed-doors meetings as a default option rather than a rare exception, is an affront to the community this forum purports to represent. It is not transparent; it is not open; it is undemocratic.

What are they hiding and why?

JPC meetings used to be widely covered in various media outlets.

A Garda report, with local crime stats, was published and discussed at each quarterly meeting. This gave the public an insight into the types and level of crimes in Galway City.

Sometimes, the figures were used by politicians to showboat. It’s what they do. But that didn’t outweigh the positive impact media coverage of JPCs had in spreading the Garda message on road safety, or crime prevention, or informing the public about initiatives to tackle issues that affect communities, like illegal dumping or illegal parking.

Now, instead of allowing independent reporters to observe and report on proceedings, the new partnership in Galway issues synopses of its meetings by press releases that are presumably vetted by members.

The latest release suggested nothing newsworthy was discussed at the recent GCCSP; or maybe they just didn’t include the interesting bits for fear of upsetting someone. Who knows?

The statement issued following the latest Secret Partnership meeting said: “The Partnership reaffirmed its commitment to transparency, collaboration and proactive community safety. The group will continue to engage with stakeholders and the wider public as planning and prevention initiatives progress throughout 2026.”

The cheek of them! Did it not dawn on members, that rather than behind-closed-doors sessions, having local media present at their meetings would be a good way to engage with the wider public and underline their commitment to transparency?

Pictured: Joint Policing Committee meetings like this one, which were widely covered by the media, have been replaced by a group that meets behind closed doors and excludes the media.