Dáil debates

Thursday, 3 July 2025

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions

Local Community Safety Partnerships

3:15 am

Photo of Emer CurrieEmer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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13. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality for an update on the roll-out of local community safety partnerships in Dublin west; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36530/25]

Photo of Emer CurrieEmer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for bringing the regulations into effect for the local community safety partnerships so they can get up and running. This new approach will involve residents, social workers, youth workers, businesses, education representatives as well as An Garda Síochána and State agencies. The initiative is important to us in Fine Gael and I commend the Minister, Deputy McEntee, on developing this vision. Can the Minister provide an update on the roll-out of local community safety partnerships in Dublin West?

Photo of Jim O'CallaghanJim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Currie. I am pleased to be able to answer the Deputy's question this time as opposed to the previous time.

Photo of Emer CurrieEmer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Minister was very keen.

Photo of Jim O'CallaghanJim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Photo of Emer CurrieEmer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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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.

Photo of Jim O'CallaghanJim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I will be taking an active role. It is an important time and occasion, now that these regulations have been signed and are being rolled out. The community partnerships will not be on their own trying to formulate their own guidance because, as I said, there will be a National Office for Community Safety, which is a statutory office that will be based within my Department. That office will be providing guidance for the partnerships with overlapping areas. Such collaboration can include exploring opportunities for joint initiatives, shared resources and joint meetings as well.

As laid out in the regulations, each local community partnership may have up to 30 members. Mandatory members will include representatives from the local authority, An Garda Síochána, the Health Service Executive and the Child and Family Agency. Each local community safety partnership will be supported by two full-time permanent staff within the local authority. Each partnership will be led by a voluntary chair and vice-chairperson who will be elected from among the membership.

It is my intent to start meeting these partnerships. It is very important that all of us, and me in particular, start selling them and telling people about the benefits that come from them.

3:25 am

Photo of Emer CurrieEmer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for the update. I will circle back to the matter of Garda numbers because community safety also depends on that. There should not be inconsistency across the districts in the Dublin metropolitan region. The K district might be losing out to the city centre at the moment but, historically, there have been inconsistencies with other Dublin districts as well. There is potentially one Garda for every 531 people in the K versus one Garda for every 397 people in a neighbouring district that has significantly lower crime statistics. Gardaí in the K are hungry, driven and dedicated, which is very evident when one works with them. The leadership is rolling out very positive and proactive initiatives. It has a very high proportion of gardaí who are still within their probation period. That is how new the force is in the district. Will the Minister examine the inconsistency and encourage evidence-based policy across population, crime statistics and geography? We need to receive the same attention as the city centre.

Photo of Jim O'CallaghanJim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I agree with the Deputy regarding the K district in Blanchardstown. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, I went to Blanchardstown Garda station and had the pleasure of meeting the gardaí there. They do excellent work. It is a very demanding and busy station.

The Deputy mentioned that I needed to get involved in directing the Garda Commissioner as to where Garda numbers should go. I will not do that. If I start doing that, it will then become a very politicised system whereby the Garda Commissioner simply responds to where the Minister wants gardaí to go. Where will that lead us in the future, if the Minister or Ministers of State ask for lots of gardaí to be put into their constituencies or to have more? I will not do that. I will leave An Garda Síochána, the Commissioner and the senior staff to make a determined calculation as to where they wish new Garda recruits to go. They are the best-positioned people to determine it and they assess all the factors. Just because a Garda recruit does not come to a station direct from Templemore does not mean that stations such as Blanchardstown do not get people transferred there.