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

The Senator alluded to it in her last comment. Community safety can mean different things to different people. To her last point, it can mean somebody who takes the law into his or her own hands, or tries to because of his or her perception of a person or group of people in that individual's community. Nobody is above the law. That is why we have An Garda Síochána; to make sure the laws are upheld. Safety can mean different things to different people. It can mean a person who is isolated and living on his or her own feeling safe from burglars or somebody coming into that person's home. It might mean somebody being safe in his or her own home from somebody that person is with, as regards domestic violence. We have seen, even through the three community safety partnerships that have been piloted, the broad variety of actions and asks that have come out of it, depending on where the partnerships are, and they are in Longford and Waterford while one has been developed in the city centre. Safety means different things to different people.

It is similar to some of the earlier amendments. We do not want to be prescriptive in primary legislation as to what safety can mean to any individual because it would inevitably exclude somebody or some scenario we have not thought of or worked through. The community partnerships are so vital because they will help communities identify what is important to those communities as regards safety. What is needed in County Meath might be separate from what is needed in parts of Dublin, Donegal or elsewhere. We have not defined it because it is a broad concept.

Again, I accept the intent of the amendments but the overall objective is to make sure there is that connection with the community, that there is no division, that we are not identifying any one part, person or group of people, and that the community encompasses and includes every single person in it. That is what we are trying to achieve with this section.