Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 December 2004
197 Mr. J. O’Keeffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the amount of funding being made available to support the community policing fora from the point of view of raising awareness, publishing newsletters and so on. [34068/04]
View answerFunding is currently made available to a number of community policing fora which have arisen in the context of the Government's national drugs strategy. There are two such fora operating on a pilot basis under the aegis of the local drugs task forces in the north inner-city and in Finglas and Cabra. The north inner-city community policing fora was established in 1999 and currently operates in Dublin's north-east inner-city area. This project receives annual funding of €72,950 through the local drugs task force initiative. In addition, the north inner-city task force initiated an additional pilot project in 2004 which involves extending the work of the original policing fora within the wider task force area. This project extension currently receives annual funding of €64,198.
A community policing forum under the aegis of the local drugs task force in Finglas and Cabra was established as a pilot initiative in 2003. This project also receives annual funding of €50,790 through the local drugs task force initiative. In all of these cases, funding is provided in respect of staff and programme costs which would include raising the awareness of the fora within their local communities. The growth of community policing fora in general needs to be delivered in the context of the development of an appropriate policy framework for what are relatively new partnership structures involving the gardaí, local authorities and local communities. Such a framework will ensure that such fora can be appropriately developed in a consistent and properly planned manner rather than the ad hoc way in which they have tended to emerge in a number of different contexts to date. Work is well under way on the development of such a policy framework which will facilitate progress in this area.
The Garda Síochána Bill 2004 represents the most significant legislative reform of Garda structures since the foundation of the State. Included in its draft provisions are mechanisms for enhanced co-operation between the gardaí and local authorities through the establishment, on a statutory basis, of policing committees. It is intended that such committees will act as fora where matters relating to all aspects of policing can be discussed and where strategies and recommendations for dealing with issues arising locally can be decided. It is intended that these policing committees will facilitate the establishment of local policing fora to address specific issues in local areas.
