Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 March 2024
829. Deputy Alan Dillon asked the Minister for Justice when joint policing committees should cease meetings, given the transition to community safety partnerships; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12120/24]
View answerMy Department's community safety policy is about people being safe and, importantly, feeling safe in their own communities. This is part of a whole-of-government Community Safety Strategy, which aims to address issues relating to community safety by bringing together the relevant social service providers (including An Garda Síochána) to work together with the community in a collaborative manner by focusing on tackling the concerns identified by the local community itself.
The Local Community Safety Partnerships are provided for in Part 3 of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024 which will be commenced during 2024. The Partnerships will operate at local authority level and they will replace Joint Policing Committees (JPCs). The Partnerships will have a wider membership than JPCs and will include residents, local councillors, community representatives (including representatives of young people, older people, new and minority communities), business and education representatives and a range of public services including the HSE, Tusla, An Garda Síochána and the local authority.
Pilot partnerships have been running in Longford, Waterford and Dublin's North Inner City, and each has published a local community safety plan, which are available on the respective local authority websites. The plans set out a number of agreed actions to be undertaken by the members of the partnerships to enhance community safety in that area. The independent chairs of the pilot partnerships are overseeing the delivery of those agreed actions.
An independent evaluation has been running since the pilot partnerships commenced, and the third and final report of the evaluation is now almost complete. Findings of the evaluation will be used to inform the national roll-out of Local Community Safety Partnerships (LCSPs) this year.
To ensure there is continuity as Local Community Safety Partnerships are stood up around the country, transitional arrangements will be put in place for JPC meetings to continue to take place for a short period where LCSPs have not yet been established in any area. However, once the LCSP has been established in a particular area, the JPC will cease.
