Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Carey for raising this issue. As he is aware, budget 2022 provides for the establishment of the new community safety innovation fund, which will enable local communities to seek funding for innovative projects which will improve community safety in their areas. Community safety is about people being safe but also, as I have mentioned a number of times this evening, it is about feeling safe within their communities. This goes beyond traditional, high-visibility policing. The Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland report recognised that preventing crime and harm and making our communities safer does not rest with An Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice alone, but requires a whole-of-government approach.

The new fund will reflect the success of the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB, and other agencies by using money seized from the proceeds of crime to support investment in community safety projects. The fund, which is expected to grow in the coming years, will have an initial outlay of €2 million. The fund will be open to bodies involved in community safety and will support them in addressing local needs and opportunities for innovation not provided for in other funds managed by Departments and different agencies.

Such a fund, I hope, will ensure that the best proposals to improve community safety get the funding they need and will encourage the development of innovative ways in which to improve community safety by those people who understand local community safety needs best. Additionally, it will allow best practice initiatives on community safety to be shared as new proposals get developed.

Justice Plan 2022 commits to opening a call for funding proposals. This call will issue shortly, seeking applications for community safety projects and similar initiatives from bodies involved in community safety, such as the new local community safety partnership pilots, of which three are in place in north inner-city Dublin, Waterford and Longford. We also have the Drogheda implementation board and similar entities nationwide.

Applications will be assessed against stated criteria outlined in the call for proposals to ensure funding is allocated to encourage the development of innovative ways in which to improve community safety from those people who understand local community safety needs best. The overall criteria and how this will be applied has been agreed so I hope we will be able to open the call in a matter of weeks and ask communities to seek funding.

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