David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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7. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when she expects that local community safety partnerships will be established across the country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26441/24]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I want to give the Minister an opportunity to update us on the local community safety partnerships, how the pilots are getting on and when she expects to be able to establish them across the rest of the State.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for his ongoing interest in the development of the local partnerships. The Government's community safety plan is about people being safe and feeling safe in their own communities, and both of those are equally important. At the heart of this policy is the principle that every community has the right to be safe and to feel safe in order for individuals and communities to thrive and flourish.

Our approach to community safety at its heart recognises that it has to be a whole-of-government, whole-of-community, shared approach such that it does not just involve members of An Garda Síochána, notwithstanding the important and significant role it plays in keeping people safe, but also is a collaboration between An Garda Síochána, members of the community, local representatives and elected representatives as well as the various agencies, from education to health, social welfare and housing.

The local partnerships are provided for in Part 3 of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act, which was signed into law just last February by the President. It is my intention that the partnerships will be rolled out across Ireland later this year.

They will operate at local authority level and will replace the joint policing committees. Each partnership will develop its own community safety plan; talk to local communities about their safety concerns before the plan is developed and throughout it; drive community safety programmes responsive to local needs so every plan will be specific to its area and what those local needs are; and foster opportunities for community participation in community safety activities.

The partnerships will also have wider memberships than the JPCs, and that is the significant difference between the two.

They will include residents, local councillors and community representatives, including representatives of younger people, older people and, importantly, new minority communities, as well as business and education representatives and a range of public services, including the HSE, Tusla, An Garda Síochána and the local authority.

As the Deputy knows, pilot partnerships have been running in Longford, Waterford and Dublin's inner city, and each of these three areas has developed and published its own community safety plan. They are all available on the local authority websites for people to look at. They set out agreed actions to be undertaken by the members of the partnerships, all with the objective of enhancing community safety. Each newly established local community safety partnership will be required to develop and implement its own tailored community safety plan and will take a strategic approach to its work so issues arising can be dealt with in a co-ordinated manner, addressed collectively by relevant service providers in partnership with the community.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for her response and congratulate her on this work, which is very important. That she has got the Garda Reserve recruitment campaign up and running is a very positive move. She stated she hopes to have the community partnerships up and running across the State later this year. Are we talking about the autumn?

Has the Minister considered the situation in my county, Cork, where the distance from Castletownbere to Youghal is quite long? If there is but one community partnership in the county, it is not the same as having one in a small county such as Leitrim or Louth, or even Dublin. Has she considered giving larger counties more than one community partnership because of their geographical size - in other words, one per municipal district. Cork already has three different local authority areas. If there were one partnership in each local authority area, it could work. I am sure there are other large counties that have a similar challenge.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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A number of measures had to be taken before the partnerships could be established, accounting for how the current three pilots have operated. I am establishing a national office for community safety, which will have the overarching objective of managing and, above all, supporting and delivering the objectives of the national strategy. There will be training, guidance and other supports for the local community safety partnerships. The partnerships themselves will have dedicated staff and teams that they can work with. The appointment of staff and processes are already in train.

Separately, an expression-of-interest process will be undertaken by each local authority to identify a suitable chairperson. I requested that councillors who wanted to apply to be chair not start the process until after the local elections to give people time to know who is elected. That process will start immediately. As local authorities and councillors start to populate the various committees, this will then apply in the same way here. My objective is to have a community partnership per local authority area. Beyond that, there can be what will be known as fora or more regionalised community partnerships, perhaps operating on a smaller but more focused basis, feeding into the larger partnerships. Considering the Deputy's point that there are some areas that are much larger and have a more widespread population, one partnership per county will not work or fit, and that is why I have made my decision.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for her response with respect to the size of counties and the idea of fora. At one stage, I was involved in five different joint policing communities and noted that local knowledge is very valuable. A lot of the work is at the level of bringing to the attention of the local authority that a streetlight is not working, for example. I am referring to low-level crime and low-level annoyance.

Could the Minister let us know the budget for the whole initiative nationally? Is there a budget set aside for it? The Minister mentioned a secretariat, the employment of people and so on. Could she outline the structure? Is there a national oversight group or body? Who do the partnerships report to?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Each partnership will be supported by a dedicated community safety co-ordinator, at administrative officer grade VII, and an administrator, at assistant staff officer grade IV. Both of these will be full-time positions. The individuals will be recruited through the local authority and they will provide the support. They will be full-time staff working on the ground in the office, wherever that is identified to be. There will also be a national office that will help with training and the implementation of the various strategies. Off the top of my head, I believe about €3 million-plus was allocated initially. I am referring to the money required this year to have the office up and running and the support staff. Probably at this stage, half of the year is catered for. Obviously, as we work towards the budget, funding that is required will be put in place for next year as well.

On the Deputy's point, the work of the joint policing committees has been really important. I see this in my county, particularly where there is a model that is more open to the community. In County Meath, every odd JPC was open to the community, and issues were raised about very specific areas on which the Garda could follow through. We do not want to lose that aspect but we must also acknowledge that it is not just the Garda that plays a role in community safety. The fora themselves might present an opportunity for more localised engagement with gardaí while not detracting from the work of the partnership.