Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)

I sincerely thank Deputy O'Donoghue for raising this timely and important issue. At the outset, and before I get into the specifics, I condemn any incidents of racially motivated abuse. I know the Deputy shares that view, as does everyone in this House. It is important to say that sometimes because we can tend gloss over it. Such behaviour is a scourge that we must all stay united in our opposition to.

The Deputy rightly and specifically raised the issue of gardaí on the beat. Getting more gardaí on our streets is this Government's first priority in the area of justice. Increased recruitment and appropriate civilianisation, where possible, is ongoing in order to achieve this goal. The level of resourcing provided to An Garda Síochána is supporting this work. The latest recruitment campaign was successful in attracting 6,700 applications. Newly appointed gardaí will support existing members, such as the 775 Garda members assigned to the Dublin metropolitan region, DMR, north division, an increase of 107 since 2015, who are supported by 72 Garda staff, which is up 28 over the same period.

I will address the issues specific to Northwood shortly, but the Deputy asked about community safety partnerships, which are key to addressing local concerns. More broadly, we recognise that we cannot police our way out of complex social problems. In that context, enhancing community safety requires a whole-of-society approach. That is why we are replacing joint policing committees with local community safety partnerships, LCSPs. These partnerships, which provided for in the new Policing, Security and Community Safety Act, will build on the good work of the joint policing committees. I was a member of one of those committees in my area. They will have broader membership, bringing together local councillors, gardaí, residents, communities - including minority and new communities - education and business representatives and statutory agencies such as the HSE, Tusla, and local authorities. Each LCSP will develop a tailored community safety plan for its area. Regulations to formally establish the LCSPs are being finalised. I am informed by the Minister that these regulations will be completed shortly.

The success of the pilot LCSPs demonstrated the value of this model. The Dublin north inner city plan included 50 actions across five priority areas and fostered strong collaboration between gardaí, youth services, addiction supports and local authorities. The pilot partnerships were subject to independent monitoring and evaluation with baseline, interim and final reports published. The learning from these pilots is being used to inform the national roll out of LCSPs. A total of 36 partnerships will be rolled out following the finalising of regulations in each local authority area. There will be one in each of the Dublin City Council administrative areas - five in total - and two in Fingal, namely one in north Fingal and another in west Fingal.

Each LCSP will be led by a voluntary chair and supported by a full-time co-ordinator and administrator. The chair will be elected from among and by the partnership membership. While administrative boundaries require that certain areas fall into neighbouring LCSPs, the overarching aim is to maintain a co-ordinated, place-based response to community safety needs. The National Office for Community Safety, based out of the Department of Justice, has prepared a comprehensive guidance document. Additionally, the National Office for Community Safety will establish networks for LCSP chairs, co-ordinators and members, giving opportunities for collaboration to share examples of best practice and request support for emergent issues and co-ordinate and communicate in related areas.

I will probably need to wait until the next slot to address the issues relating to Northwood more fully. However, I understand that gardaí have already increased high-visibility patrols in the Northwood area following a recent robbery in Gulliver's Retail Park. As a result of these patrols, the suspect was arrested by local gardaí and is currently before the courts. Community gardaí are continuing to act with the community in this area. I will go into more detail on matters relating to community gardaí in my next slot. I would do the matter a disservice if I were to just run through the first two paragraphs at this point.

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