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

If I am answering the wrong question, my very vigilant Ministers of State will tell me I am doing something wrong. The Deputy is correct in stating that last week, I signed the regulations giving effect to the local community safety partnerships, LCSPs. They came into force on Monday of this week.

As the Deputy will be aware, much work has already been done in respect of local community safety partnerships, but now we have the regulations in place and people will be aware that we have to put in place these partnerships as they are an essential part in ensuring that the public in those particular areas are served.

The regulations outline clearly how the safety partnerships will operate in practice and will ensure that each partnership operates with transparency, focus and strong local engagement. The Deputy will be aware, from the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland, that community safety requires multi-agency co-operation. That is why the legislation specifically requires that we have not only gardaí and elected representatives from the local authorities on it, but also people from the HSE or Tusla, in order to recognise that many of the issues that arise do not only concern policing, but also relate to community safety and community partnership.

Deputy Currie raised the issue in respect of her area in terms of her constituency of Dublin West. There is an issue there because administrative boundaries require that certain areas fall into neighbouring LCSPs but the overarching aim is to maintain a co-ordinated place-based response to community safety needs.

I want the Deputy to be aware, in terms of her own constituency and, indeed, all other constituencies, that within my Department there is the National Office for Community Safety. It will have a responsibility in terms of providing guidance to local community safety partnerships as to how they should deal with issues in the area.

See this speech in context