Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 5 May 2021
483. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Justice if a community safety partnership (details supplied) will be retained following the establishment of the community safety innovation fund; and if the current arrangements will continue. [23219/21]
View answerAs you will be aware, Minister McEntee and Minister McGrath have agreed, in principle, to establish the new Community Safety Innovation Fund. The scheme, when established, will allocate funds to community safety projects and other policy initiatives in the area including the work of the new Local Community Safety Partnerships. The fund is not impacting on structures for community safety partnerships, it is intended to support such initiatives.
It will reflect the significant successes of An Garda Síochána and the Criminal Assets Bureau in disrupting criminal activity and seizing proceeds of crime, by providing additional funding for investment in community safety projects. The details of how the fund will be allocated will be finalised as part of the budgetary process.
Separately, as the Deputy will be aware, my Department has been developing a new community safety policy to reflect the findings and recommendations contained in the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. The Commission found that community safety requires a whole of Government approach in partnership with local communities. This new policy will be given a statutory basis in a new Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill, the General Scheme of which was recently approved by Government. To support and inform the policy, three Local Community Safety Partnerships are being piloted in Dublin’s North Inner City, Waterford and Longford and will run for the next two years.
These Partnerships will operate at local authority administrative level and replace and build upon Joint Policing Committees. They will be made up of local representatives, local services, community representatives and residents. Local Community Safety Partnerships will take a strategic approach to their work so that issues arising can be dealt with in a coordinated manner, and addressed collectively by relevant service providers in partnership with the community.
It is not intended that the Local Community Safety Partnerships will impede the functioning of successful local safety initiatives. The intention is that where local safety fora are active, the Local Safety Partnerships will serve as a useful forum to which they can escalate any issues as appropriate, and gain access to a range of service providers.
The pilots will inform the development of the rollout of Local Community Safety Partnerships in every local authority area as part of the provisions of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill.
