Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party)
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176. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when she expects to publish the final evaluation report on the Local Community Safety Partnership Pilots; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55741/23]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department's community safety policy is about people being safe and, importantly, feeling safe in their own community.

I have provided funding of €7.9 million in 2024 for the creation of a new National Office for Community Safety and to roll out Local Community Safety Partnerships nationwide.

The Local Community Safety Partnerships are provided for in Part 3 of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023, which is currently progressing through the Seanad. They will serve as a forum for discussion and targeted action on community concerns.

As the Deputy will be aware, pilot partnerships are currently running in Longford, Waterford and Dublin North Inner City. All three pilot partnerships have now also published their respective Community Safety Plans.

The partnership approach is a new approach to community safety and is centred on the premise that responding to the problems and issues related to community safety requires a range of inputs from across government, local services, voluntary sector and, very importantly, the community itself. These Partnerships will build upon and replace the existing Joint Policing Committees, bringing together Gardaí, local representatives, community organisations and State bodies. Pilot partnerships have been in operation for the last two years, in Longford, Waterford and Dublin North Inner City. There are significant benefits to the involvement of outside agencies in developing a community safety plan in each local authority area. It will allow each partnership to deal with issues of safety which are not strictly within the criminal justice system (e.g. drugs, youth services, public lighting, integration and diversity issues).

An independent evaluation had been undertaken since the pilot partnerships commenced, and the final report of the evaluation is almost complete. Once the independent evaluation has been completed, work will commence on an all of Government national strategy for community safety partnerships.

As the Deputy may be aware, an interim evaluation report of the LCSP pilots was published in April 2023 and is available on my Department's website at the following link: gov.ie/en/collection/b659d-policies-legislation-and-next-steps/

The evaluation has employed a mixed methods approach, replicated across the three set time points over the course of the two-year pilot. The methods include focus groups with pilot partnership members, interviews with their stakeholders (local and national), an online survey of partnership members and an analysis of a range of relevant documents and data gathered by each pilot.

The lessons learned will enhance our ability to develop a national strategy and put in place structures that support our shared aim to support and enable state and civic society to work together effectively to create safe communities.