Dara Calleary
Ceist:115. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Justice if she plans to review the current plans for joint policing committees; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16202/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 29 March 2022
Ceisteanna (115)
Freagraí scríofa
The Deputy will be aware that my Department published the general scheme of the landmark Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill earlier this year. The Bill will provide for a key principle from the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland - that preventing crime and harm and making our communities safer does not rest with An Garda Síochána and my Department alone. Rather, it will be best achieved as a whole-of-government responsibility with Departments and agencies responsible for health and social services, education authorities and local authorities, the Gardaí and the wider community working together.
The new Bill will achieve this by establishing innovative Local Community Safety Partnerships to develop local safety plans, tailored to the priorities and needs identified by communities themselves. The Local Community Safety Partnerships will build upon and replace the existing Joint Policing Committees and will provide a forum for State agencies and local community representatives to work together to act on community concerns.
The Deputy will be aware that in November 2020, I announced the establishment of three new Local Community Safety Partnerships on a pilot basis in North Inner City Dublin, Waterford and Longford. The locations of the pilots, which will run for 24 months, were chosen based on a number of factors including population density, crime rates and deprivation. An independent Chairperson has been appointed to chair each Partnership pilot.
Each Partnership will devise and oversee a Local Community Safety Plan, which will be informed by the community itself. Each LCSP pilot consists of 30 members including an independent chairperson. The remaining 29 members are divided in a 14/15 split in favour of non-public representatives.
Non-public membership relate to those who are not members of public body agencies or service providers. This can include local residents, community representatives (including youth, older persons, minority and new community representatives), business representatives, education representatives, voluntary sector representatives etc. The specific membership composition of each individual partnership is flexible depending on the needs of the particular local community and is outlined in the individual Terms of Reference of each Partnership. The Partnerships meet on a regular basis with at least four meetings a year.
To date, each of the three pilot LCSPs in Longford, North Inner City Dublin and Waterford has a complete membership including an independent Chair. Each pilot has also employed a Community Safety Coordinator who provides the day-to-day contact between the community and the partnership, runs projects within the community and generally act as a focal point through which community concerns can be channelled.
As the pilots progress, they will be carefully evaluated and any necessary changes made to ensure the Partnerships work as effectively as possible for the communities involved. The pilots will inform the further development of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill, which will facilitate the rollout of Local Community Safety Partnerships in every local authority area.
Each pilot is also subject to an ongoing independent evaluation which will last for the 24-month duration of the pilots. The overall aim of the evaluation is to provide actionable evidence to help inform the development of the LCSPs and their rollout across the country on completion of the pilot period, after the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill is enacted.
The evaluation is exploring implementation approaches and processes that appear to be effective across the pilot communities. Over time, it will assess how well the LCSP pilots identified the priorities and concerns of their respective communities; how the LCSPs conducted their work; the engagement and relationships the LCSPs had with local communities; and the impact of the LCSP work on community safety.
Findings from the evaluation process will inform future rollout of the LCSP model in every local authority area. The initial phase of fieldwork (Q4 2021 – Q1 2022) is focused on reviewing processes and establishing baseline data. A baseline report will be completed and submitted to my Department in Q2 of 2022. The first report on findings and lessons will be due in Q4 2022.
A call for funding proposals for the new Community Safety Innovation Fund will issue shortly seeking applications for community safety projects and similar initiatives from bodies involved in community safety, such as the new Local Community Safety Partnerships and the Drogheda Implementation Board, as well as similar entities nationwide. Applications will be assessed against stated criteria outlined in the call for proposals to ensure funding is allocated to encourage the development of innovative ways in which to improve community safety. These criteria for allocating funding are now finalised, with the fund due to be launched in the coming weeks. The fund will have an initial outlay in 2022 of €2m, which is expected to grow in the coming years.