Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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575. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the initiatives that are being pursued to ensure public order and safety on streets. [58128/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As Minister for Justice, I am acutely aware of the effect that crime and anti-social behaviour can have on the quality of life for all communities. The government are committed to taking action to tackle anti-social behaviour. This includes:

- Giving An Garda Síochána additional tools and technology to fight crime in a digital era by introducing legislation to provide for body worn cameras, improved community CCTV schemes and expanded use of ANPR.

- Providing the Gardaí with new powers to seize and stop the illegal use of scramblers.

- Giving local people and local representatives a say in how to make their communities safer through the new Community Safety Partnerships.

- Providing a range community sanctions to be used to address criminality, reduce reoffending and provide protection to the public.

- Introducing legislation to criminalise the grooming of children to commit criminal offences.

- In parallel, we will continue to roll out the community intervention programme “Greentown” which seeks to break the link between children who are engaged or at risk of engaging with a criminal gang.

In addition to policy and legislative action being taken by government, there are a number of ongoing enforcement operations in place that are aimed at tackling anti-social behaviour.

As the Deputy will be aware, Garda Operation Citizen commenced in October 2021. Operation Citizen aims to reassure the public that Dublin is a safe place to live and work, through high-visibility patrolling and community engagement.

Operation Citizen achieves these aims through increased patrols of the city centre, including 100 Garda members patrolling each weekend evening. These increased patrols are supported by members from the Garda Public Order Unit and other specialist units, assigned specifically to the city centre. There are also Garda members assigned specifically to patrol the River Liffey boardwalks and their environs at night.

Operation Citizen is not an isolated response. It works in tandem with a number of different operations currently ongoing in the city centre. These include Operation Saul, which aims to provide a safe environment for commuters travelling in the Dublin Metropolitan Region, and Operation Spire, which tackles on-street drug dealing and anti-social behaviour in the O'Connell Street area.

There are also Garda operations in other major urban centres. As the Deputy may be aware, Operation Copóg was commenced in 2021 to combat the sale and supply of drugs in the St Mary's Park area in Limerick. I am informed that it was reformulated to include an enhanced community policing presence, supported by other specialist units in the Limerick Division, and will continue. Operation Copóg is only one element of wider strategies to deal with anti-social behaviour and organised criminal activity in the Limerick Region.

There is ongoing support by the Government for An Garda Síochána, including the unprecedented €2.14 billion allocated under Budget 2023. This level of funding will support recruitment of up to 1,000 new Garda members and an additional 400 Garda Staff in 2023. Coupled with further reassignments of Gardaí to operational frontline policing and the continued roll out of the new Operating Model with its focus on community engagement, I am confident that An Garda Síochána will continue to protect communities, combat anti-social behaviour.

Our new Local Community Safety Partnerships will form a core part of how we implement this collective responsibility to make our communities safer for all. They will provide a forum for State agencies and local community representatives to work together to act on community concerns.

Currently three pilot Local Community Safety Partnerships have been established with an independent Chair and full-time Coordinator appointed to each pilot Partnership, including in Dublin’s North Inner City.

Another key support my Department is helping to provide to local communities is the Community Safety Innovation Fund (CSIF). Launched in April, the Fund redirects money which is the proceeds of crime, seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau and others.

I am particularly pleased to note that six innovative projects in the Dublin region received funding this year, including the Community Safety Wardens project around Wolfe Tone Square in Dublin’s North Inner City, and a number of projects focusing on improving outcomes for young people. In addition, a proposal to extend the Community Safety Wardens proposal to cover O’Connell Street and surrounding areas is currently being finalised.

Improving outcomes for our young people, and diverting those most at risk away from crime, is a key part of our response to anti-social behaviour in Dublin and across the country.

An additional allocation of €6.7m was provided in Budget 2022 and another €2.5m in 2023 to ensure the delivery of key objectives in the Youth Justice Strategy, in particular the expansion and deepening of the services offered to young people by the Youth Diversion Projects, which are fully funded by my Department.

These projects provide an invaluable support to complement the work of An Garda Síochána in addressing youth crime and protecting local communities.