Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for giving me an opportunity to correct some of the misinformation about this important legislation and to set out how I envisage the local community safety partnerships operating in the years ahead. The overall objective is to build stronger safer communities. As the Senator said, people must feel safe and be safe in their homes. To build stronger safer communities, the communities themselves, either directly or through their public representatives, need to have a real say in how to improve their local areas because nobody knows than the local community better than those working in it and part of it themselves. This approach goes far beyond the traditional policing response. It is not just the responsibility of An Garda Síochána alone although, of course, high-visibility policing is central to it. It requires all relevant State bodies, voluntary organisations, councillors, TDs, Senators and other elected representatives and local community and business groups working together in a joined-up way in partnership with the local community to prioritise and effectively address issues in their own areas. It is very specific to each area because we all have challenges in our own counties and specific townlands.

The local community safety partnerships are provided for in Part 3 of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill, which, of course, I hope comes before the House shortly for Committee Stage. It is worth noting that the proposals in the Bill have already been approved by Dáil Éireann and prior to that the proposals were included in the general scheme of the Bill. Of course, the Bill was subject to pre-legislative scrutiny which took place over 2021 and 2022 and, of course, Members of this House were involved in that. These partnerships will operate at a local authority level and will replace the joint policing committees. I acknowledge the significant work that has been done by those on the joint policing committees. As somebody who goes to the local joint policing committees, I see the benefit of that engagement. What we are doing with the community safety partnerships is building on that fantastic work. The partnerships will serve as a forum for discussion and more importantly as a key driver of action in local communities to increase safety.It is also important to say funding will be available for these partnerships. Each pilot to date has benefited from the community safety innovation fund, which I established and for which budget 2024 provides even further investment. At the moment it is €3.75 million. I can see that increasing year on year.

The Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill will place a statutory obligation on Departments and other public service bodies to co-operate with each other to improve community safety. The partnerships will have a wider membership than the JPCs currently have. They will include residents, community representative organisations, including representatives of young people, older people, new and minority communities, and business and education representatives; as well as a range of public services, including HSE, Tusla, of course An Garda Síochána and the local authority. I stress that local councillors will remain a very important part of the make-up of these new fora.

Senators will be aware we have had pilot partnerships. They are currently running in Longford, Waterford and Dublin's north inner city. They have all drafted community safety plans which show the real value of inputs from the wider stakeholders. For example, in Dublin the business group suggested the idea of community safety wardens. Dublin City Council committed to improving public lighting and the streetscape. The Longford County Council committed to installing additional CCTV cameras and that the partnerships would receive regular updates and give feedback on the roll-out of these cameras. In Waterford, the HSE committed to increasing harm reduction information in pubs, clubs and youth clubs. Many different actions are already taking place that everybody is feeding into. These are just a handful of those actions.

There are six to seven local councillors on each of the pilots to date. They are chosen from among the team of councillors. When establishing the pilots, we adopted the approach of the membership mirroring that of other local government committee structures, including the local community development committees, LCDCs, and the strategic policy committees. Not all councillors are on them, but they change and swap over. Councillors are on different committees at different stages and this is what we are trying to replicate here.

The Bill currently before the Seanad does not specify the composition of each partnership but provides that it will be a matter for the Minister to set up through secondary legislation. This provides for a more flexible approach, allowing for future changes if something is not working effectively. In the Garda Síochána Act of 2005, the membership or composition of JPCs was not specified; that was all done at a later date. We are trying here to provide that flexibility again.

I will come in on a few other matters, if that is okay, afterwards.