Ms Helen Hall:

I will start. I may ask my colleague, Ms Tumelty, to chip in as well. I could not agree more with the Deputy that the idea of multi-agency co-operation is key. I echo what he has said, and other Deputies have said the same. The job the Garda Síochána does for us in the middle of the night, in very difficult circumstances, is not to be underestimated. Sometimes gardaí deal with issues of addiction and mental ill health in the middle of the night. They are the ones left trying to deal with that. The new legislation is predicated on community safety. It is in the Bill. The new policing and community safety authority will have a role in overseeing that. One question I have about the Bill is whether it goes far enough in delivering on the ambition of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland, which was about requiring real inter-agency co-operation, working in inter-agency teams, but also that there would be money for that in order that it becomes real at a community level. That is one potential for the future.

We have spent quite a bit of time on drugs policing in respect of oversight because we hear about that from communities suffering from the effect of dealers on the streets they are living on, with their children not being able to go out safely. That feeling is not just a feeling of a lack of safety; they are not actually safe, and there is a sense and a concern that the Garda cannot resolve that for them. There have been a lot of discussions with the Commissioner and his team about the fact that the Garda has made very good inroads at a very senior level in cracking organised crime gangs, but does that make a difference to the communities on a day-to-day basis? One of the strategies the Garda has is to try to look at that. The other thing that is important is the new emphasis on community policing. That is a really important part and should not be considered a softer end of policing. The Commissioner and the team are giving a new emphasis, and that is something we will be pressing for and encouraging. There are things in the policing plan to ensure that that happens apace.

As for rural crime and people feeling safe, we have joint policing committees and there are some pilots out there for what will happen under the new legislation. They are the community safety partnerships. It is a matter of making sure that the initiatives that come from those community safety partnerships, or indeed the joint policing committees, truly come from the needs of the community and that they can see that as a way for them to be able to hold not just the gardaí but also perhaps the local authorities or the local health service to account, looking at how, as a public or a community, we can encourage and engage the multidisciplinary piece.

I do not know if Ms Tumelty wishes to add anything.