Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I will talk about knife crime, which is a concerning issue for people in Dublin West. Last year, we lost somebody in the middle of the day in Ongar village, who was killed in a knife attack. Almost one year later, in almost the same spot, there was another knife incident. I understand that knife seizures have started to increase, but there is a bigger story here than the bare facts we have at the moment. The feeling is that the possession of knives is more prevalent and, in some ways, it has become more normalised to carry knives.

While I welcome what the Minister of State has brought to the House in terms of maximum penalties, I want to focus on the necessity for a wider approach to tackling knife crime. I think we will find the solution to this in the new local community safety partnership approach.This is not just about policing and there needs to be a wider approach in communities where the community is involved. We need to change the way we work with communities and change behaviour, resulting in safer streets and safer communities.

Of course, that goes back to having a Garda presence. I remind people that we all agreed that Templemore needed to shut during the Covid pandemic and that has had a real impact. We would love to have 1,000 more gardaí and, in fact, we need many more than that as our population grows. It would be nice to have a mature debate where people accept that that has had a real impact on Garda numbers.

Regarding Garda K district, I have said this before and I will say this again. We have higher crime statistics and a higher population, but I do not believe we have the garda numbers to reflect that. That can be seen in Dublin West. We have one Garda station in Blanchardstown and another in Cabra. However, the Blanchardstown station covers all of Dublin West right out to Ongar village and then north again to Tyrrelstown. We lack a visible Garda presence and the solution can be found in the local community safety partnerships where there should be the opportunity for hubs, offices or partnership buildings to be open on our main streets with a visible physical presence of our different agencies supporting each other, working with each other and working with the community. That needs to involve the Garda, juvenile liaison officers, amazing youth workers, businesses and community groups.

We can see the positive work that our Garda clinics do in the area, but they are not consistent and not everybody knows about them. Having a presence on our main streets would make an enormous difference for areas like Ongar and Tyrrelstown. While it is very difficult to open a Garda station, it should not be as difficult to open a partnership office that can be available to the public to call into.

I ask the Minister of State to update us on local community safety partnerships. Dublin West really needs to be prioritised. We need one in each of Ongar, Tyrrelstown and Corduff. I understand that they will be similar to joint policing committees in that there will be one overall structure, but there must be room for subgroups so that communities have ownership of their own community safety plans.

My last point is on youth diversion projects. The funding for such projects has doubled in recent years but we have a confidence issue when people are seeing low-level, persistent antisocial behaviour, including robbing from cars and cars being broken into. Many communities across Dublin 15 and Dublin West are being targeted. It is really important that we instil confidence in the public that our youth diversion programmes work to address that behaviour.