Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

Community partnerships have the potential to truly impact community safety because intervention and prevention is not only the remit of the Garda. We have to bring local stakeholders to the table to tackle local problems with local solutions.

I am wondering how the Minister will ensure residents know about this initiative. Will there be a local campaign or a local awareness drive? I believe €5.5 million has been provided to set the partnerships up. How does the Minister envisage these funds being spent? Will there be a community safety partnership office, for instance, situated in the community for people to access?

There is also the community safety fund putting proceeds from crime back into communities, but is only €4 million. The local partnerships, if they are working, will have strategies and recommendations and those solutions need to be funded and will not always fit neatly under local authority or State agency budget lines. I hope the Minister will take an active role in ensuring the partnerships are working from the ground up as well as from the top down.

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