Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)

I support the amendment in full. Sometimes, the issue with the community safety fund is it requires a lot of cultural capital to get down there, get the forms together and conjure up a new initiative. In those scenarios, you need boards. A lot of communities we deal with, which would really benefit from this, are already keeping the wolf from the door in trying to organise football, for example. It does not need to create the wheel in terms of new initiatives - give them money for the boxing clubs and football clubs. Often, coaches are people taking it on their own initiative and are mostly doing a nine-to-five job, coming home, starting training at 6 p.m. and they do not have the time. Time is a commodity that is not in large supply when you are keeping the wolf from the door. This amendment is worthy but how can we get into those communities that do not have the time or a solicitor on the board of management who can fill out the forms? There is a lot of worth in the community safety fund. It needs a degree of innovation and latitude for the fact that the communities most impacted by the crime that happens in the community are also the ones that do not have time capital to sit down and fill out the forms.