Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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2147. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he is considering providing significant additional funding to the Ballymun Implementation Board, in a similar model to the NEIC Implementation Board, to address long-standing issues in Ballymun identified in the Montague Report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44431/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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The Ballymun Implementation Board was established by my predecessor, Minister Helen McEntee, last year, based on the same interagency and community cooperation principles utilised by the Drogheda, Darndale and Cherry Orchard Implementation Boards.

The Ballymun Implementation Board is led by an independent Chair and is hosted by Dublin City Council. It includes representatives from Dublin City Council, An Garda Síochána, Tusla, HSE, City of Dublin Education and Training Board, City of Dublin Youth Services, St Joseph’s Senior National School, Department of Education, Young Ballymun, Dublin North West Area Partnership and the Probation Service. In November 2024, two community representatives from the Ballymun Regional Youth Resource and Ballymun Local Drugs and Alcohol Task Force were appointed to the Board.

The focus of the Board is to tackle some of the deep-rooted issues which exist in the Ballymun area by bringing together the relevant social services providers and the Gardaí, to work together with the community and local business leaders in a collaborative and effective manner, focusing on the matters of concern identified by the local community itself.

The Board has reported that, due to the number of local agencies delivering services within the community, an Assets Mapping exercise was required to ascertain the current level of service delivery, funders, and reach of each organisation or agency. As part of this exercise the Board will identify challenges and any significant gaps in service provision delivered locally.

I attended a meeting of the Board on 7 April 2025 where I was glad to welcome the progress achieved to date and I also acknowledged the multi-agency collaboration and local initiatives already in place to address the local challenges.

The Implementation Board model is to focus on State services working with each other and the community to ensure there is better coordination so that harm prevention and interventions are delivered pro-actively, by the service best placed to deliver it and in a joined up, integrated way with other services. Funding of €200,000 has been secured by my Department for the core administration costs of the Ballymun Implementation Board so that they can continue their work into 2026.