Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy. If he will permit me, I will return briefly to something Deputies Carthy and Gannon raised. They talked about exit interviews from An Garda Síochána. What I should have mentioned in my answer was that exit interviews were done in 2024 and the main reason gardaí left was referred to as "family circumstances", namely, gardaí found it difficult to maintain their careers as Garda members while also managing family life.

I thank Deputy Ó Murchú for his question about community safety partnerships. As a former member of a local authority, he will know JPCs were an invaluable way for elected representatives to get information from An Garda Síochána. The purpose of the new scheme of community safety partnerships is to ensure that continues, but that it is broadened with the presence of other statutory agencies. I hope to sign regulations providing for the rules and mechanisms for these community safety partnerships in the very near future. I do not want to give the Deputy a specific date. I am hoping to do it very soon, but it will be done in the very near future. I have also signed into law the order required for the purpose of establishing the steering group that will be necessary to evaluate these new community partnerships. They will be an invaluable addition. They will enable individuals who are local representatives of the community to talk to gardaí and agencies like the HSE, Tusla and Cuan in order to ensure there is a proper discussion of the important information that needs to be communicated in respect of a local community.

As for the chair, the role is pivotal to the partnerships achieving their full potential. In advance of the commencement of the Act and in order to be well prepared, my Department has invited local authorities to select suitable chairs through an expression of interest process. I am committed to ensuring the local community safety partnerships are effective and robust from the outset. Over the course of preparing the necessary regulations to establish the partnerships, it became clear they would have to elect a chair from within their membership. I will set out more detail about that in due course, but it is an important part of the accountability of local government.

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