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

I thank the Deputy for his ongoing interest in the development of the local partnerships. The Government's community safety plan is about people being safe and feeling safe in their own communities, and both of those are equally important. At the heart of this policy is the principle that every community has the right to be safe and to feel safe in order for individuals and communities to thrive and flourish.

Our approach to community safety at its heart recognises that it has to be a whole-of-government, whole-of-community, shared approach such that it does not just involve members of An Garda Síochána, notwithstanding the important and significant role it plays in keeping people safe, but also is a collaboration between An Garda Síochána, members of the community, local representatives and elected representatives as well as the various agencies, from education to health, social welfare and housing.

The local partnerships are provided for in Part 3 of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act, which was signed into law just last February by the President. It is my intention that the partnerships will be rolled out across Ireland later this year.

They will operate at local authority level and will replace the joint policing committees. Each partnership will develop its own community safety plan; talk to local communities about their safety concerns before the plan is developed and throughout it; drive community safety programmes responsive to local needs so every plan will be specific to its area and what those local needs are; and foster opportunities for community participation in community safety activities.

The partnerships will also have wider memberships than the JPCs, and that is the significant difference between the two.

They will include residents, local councillors and community representatives, including representatives of younger people, older people and, importantly, new minority communities, as well as business and education representatives and a range of public services, including the HSE, Tusla, An Garda Síochána and the local authority.

As the Deputy knows, pilot partnerships have been running in Longford, Waterford and Dublin's inner city, and each of these three areas has developed and published its own community safety plan. They are all available on the local authority websites for people to look at. They set out agreed actions to be undertaken by the members of the partnerships, all with the objective of enhancing community safety. Each newly established local community safety partnership will be required to develop and implement its own tailored community safety plan and will take a strategic approach to its work so issues arising can be dealt with in a co-ordinated manner, addressed collectively by relevant service providers in partnership with the community.

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