Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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133. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if she will provide additional details on the new community safety innovation fund outlined in Budget 2022; if she will provide examples of the type of projects that may be supported through the fund; if addressing antisocial behaviour in residential areas will be included in this fund; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51682/21]

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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144. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if she will elaborate on the new community safety innovation fund and the type of projects that it is envisaged would be supported through the fund. [51276/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 133 and 144 together.

As the Deputies will be aware, Budget 2022 provides for the establishment of the new Community Safety Innovation Fund. It is intended that this fund will support investment in projects which will improve community safety. The fund, which is expected to grow in the coming years, will have an initial outlay in 2022 of €2m.

A call for funding proposals will issue seeking applications for community safety projects and similar initiatives from bodies involved in community safety, such as the new Local Community Safety Partnerships – pilots of which are in place in North Inner City Dublin, Waterford and Longford – and the Drogheda Implementation Board, as well as similar entities nationwide.

Applications will be assessed against stated criteria outlined in the call for proposals to ensure funding is allocated to encourage the development of innovative ways in which to improve community safety from those people who understand local community safety needs best. These criteria for allocating funding are currently under consideration and will be announced in due course. 

The approach we are taking will ensure that the best proposals to improve community safety will get the funding they need and will encourage the development of innovative ways in which to improve community safety from those people who understand local community safety needs best. It will also allow best practice on community safety to be shared with other partnerships around the country as new proposals get developed.

As the Deputies will be aware, all monies seized by CAB are remitted to the Central Fund of the Exchequer after the appropriate statutory time frame under the Proceeds of Crime Act; currently seven years must elapse from date of seizure to remittance to the Exchequer.

Responsibility for the identification, tracing, freezing, and ultimate confiscation of criminal assets rests with a number of different agencies and statutory bodies. These include An Garda Síochána, the Criminal Assets Bureau, as well as Revenue, the Chief State Solicitors Office, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Courts.