Mr. Cormac Ó Donnchú:

I am the independent volunteer chairperson of the Dublin North Inner City Local Community Safety Partnership and I am joined by our co-ordinator, Ms Sonia Keniry. We thank the committee for the opportunity to be here today. We have detailed in our written submission our views on the topic of antisocial behaviour and how it currently presents in the area of north inner city Dublin.

We have outlined a number of strategies which may be considered by this committee in addressing the issue, in particular, review of judicial procedures, legislation, and judicial and community engagement. We are happy to discuss the content of our written submission further with members, but for the purposes of this opening statement I wish to outline the structure and intended role of local community safety partnerships in addressing matters of local community safety.

The concept of community safety is about people being safe and feeling safe in their communities. The new community safety policy is intended to ensure communities are safer and feel safer by making community safety a whole-of-government responsibility and priority, with a focus on prevention and early intervention. Community safety in the most complete sense requires the proactive and ongoing input of a range of public, community services and, importantly, local residents and cannot be met by any single State agency or voluntary organisation alone.

The landmark policing, security and community safety Bill will provide for this key principle from the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland, that preventing crime and harm and making our communities safer does not rest with An Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice alone. Rather, it will be best achieved as a whole-of-government responsibility, with Departments and agencies responsible for health and social services, education authorities and local authorities, the Garda and the wider community all working together. The new Bill will achieve this by establishing innovative local community safety partnerships to develop local safety plans tailored to the priorities and needs identified by communities. The partnerships will replace and build upon the existing joint policing committees and will provide a forum for State agencies and local community representatives to work together to act on community concerns about antisocial behaviour.

The goal of the partnerships is that all relevant State bodies and voluntary organisations will work together effectively, in partnership with the local community, to prioritise and address issues in their area. Three local community safety partnerships are being piloted in Dublin’s north inner city, Waterford city and county and Longford county. These pilots will run for 24 months and are subject to a robust independent evaluation. The learnings from the pilots and their evaluation will be taken into account and will be applied to the national roll-out of the local community safety partnerships throughout the country.

Membership of the partnership pilots include residents; community representatives, including representatives of youth, new communities and the voluntary sector; business and education representatives; and representatives from relevant public services in the area, including the HSE, Tusla, An Garda Síochána, the Probation Service, the local authority and locally elected councillors. As residents and community representatives are central to identifying problems and solutions for their local communities, the partnerships have a 51:49 split in their favour on the committee. Each local community safety partnership pilot is also supported by a full-time co-ordinator and an independent voluntary chairperson.

Each partnership is hard at work addressing local issues and working on developing a local community safety plan tailored to their area to guide future actions and interventions. The plans will identify issues most in need of prioritisation, ensuring actions taken are strategic and effective. They, along with the actions taken to address their content, will also serve as templates for the work of future partnerships.

I thank the committee again for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the local community safety partnerships and antisocial behaviour, and I look forward to continuing to actively support collaborative progress towards achieving a safer society for all. Ms Keniry and I would be delighted to engage in that conversation as we proceed.