Press release
Minister Harris appoints new Chair to the Dublin Local Community Safety Partnership
Published on
Last updated on
Published on
Last updated on
Today Minister for Justice Simon Harris announced the appointment of Eddie Mullins as the new Chair of the Dublin North Inner City Local Community Safety Partnership (LCSP). Mr Mullins is the current Governor of Mountjoy Prison, with over 30 years of experience working for the Irish Prison Service and with a long history of working with people to reduce offending.
Under the Department of Justice’s community safety policy, Local Community Safety Partnerships will replace and build upon the existing Joint Policing Committees. These new partnerships will provide an enhanced forum for State agencies and local community representatives to work together to act on community concerns.
Minister Harris said:
“I am delighted to be able to appoint Eddie Mullins to this important position.
"Mr Mullins has a strong track record in working collaboratively and piloting new initiatives to promote safety, particularly in the context of engaging partners from education, employment and mental health and addiction to work with prisoners to assist them in moving away from crime, which is very relevant in the community safety context.
"Mr Mullins is also a native of Dublin who is well known to most of the agencies and NGOs involved in the partnership, through his work in Mountjoy.”
There are currently three pilot LCSPs in Dublin’s North Inner City, Waterford, and Longford.
The pilot LCSPs are undergoing an ongoing independent evaluation to ensure that, when established nationally, the LCSPs will be designed and supported to help communities prioritise issues raised by its members as safety concerns.
The Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill will place statutory obligations on departments and other public service bodies to cooperate with each other to improve community safety. It also establishes national structures to provide strategic direction and ensure that collaboration is working, and establishes Local Community Safety Partnerships (LCSPs) which will replace existing Joint Policing Committees.
The partnerships are made up of:
Each partnership will create their own local community safety plan, setting out the key actions to address safety concerns in their community and assigning ownership for these actions. The first such plan has been produced by the Longford LCSP pilot and is available on the Longford County Council website. The Waterford Community Safety Plan 2023-2028 was launched in March.
The pilot LCSPs are undergoing an ongoing independent evaluation to ensure that, when established nationally, the LCSPs will be designed and supported to help communities prioritise issues raised by its members as safety concerns.
A final evaluation report of the LCSP pilot is expected by the end of 2023, ahead of their nationwide rollout as part of the implementation of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill.