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The Minister for Justice Mrs Helen McEntee TD has launched a new All Island Community Safety Network.
The project is being funded through the Community Safety Innovation Fund, which seeks to reinvest seized proceeds of crime directly back into projects, to improve community safety.
Community Safety is a priority topic at both national and local levels and this Network will facilitate the sharing of ideas, good practice, and projects in relation to Community Safety and Policing engagement across the island of Ireland, both North and South.
The Network will offer communities an opportunity to hear first-hand about the successes of other groups across the entire island and offer them the chance to shine a light on their own examples of effective collaborative community safety projects that might be mirrored elsewhere.
The establishment of this network is timely given the recent enactment of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act, which allows for the establishment of Local Community Safety Partnerships on a nationwide basis.
The project builds on the project partners’ previous experience collaborating on Beyond Borders: The All-Island Community Safety Conference held in November 2022, when over 300 attendees from both jurisdictions came together to get an insight into best practice in Community Safety; not only from Ireland but further afield.
The Network is a collaboration between Longford Community Safety Partnership, Drogheda Implementation Board and Newry Mourne and Down Policing and Community Safety Partnership.
Current and new Local Community Safety Partnerships in Ireland; Policing and Community Safety Partnerships in Northern Ireland; Joint Policing Committees; alongside relevant statutory and community organisations, will be invited to participate in Network events and activities.
Minister McEntee said: “Community safety is about people being safe and feeling safe in their communities. Local communities, key workers in the area and local representatives are often best placed to know and identify issues that will improve community safety in their areas. But learning from what has worked in other communities is also important, so that best practice can be mainstreamed.
This all-Island network will allow statutory and community partners to hear about examples of effective collaborative community safety projects and to develop better cross border relationships to enhance community safety across the island of Ireland.
I am delighted to launch the Network today, wish the project partners well and look forward to seeing the initiatives and project concepts which emerge positively impacting communities across Ireland”.
Ms Martina Maloney, (Chair of Longford Community Safety Partnership), speaking at the launch commented: “The high numbers of attendees at Beyond Borders, coupled with the very positive feedback we received from attendees showed us that there is a desire for more opportunities to share learning and gain insights into best practice in Community Safety across the island of Ireland.
Indeed a number of community safety projects emerged from the event, including the delivery of Kids’ Courts by Longford Community Safety Partnership alongside An Garda Síochána and local primary schools; and a collaborative youth drug prevention programme delivered by Foróige and Youth Work Ireland Louth in Drogheda.
We greatly appreciate funding from the Department of Justice which has enabled us to establish this Network and continue to bring together Community Safety practitioners from both North and South of the Border.
We will be hosting a series of thematic events in 2024 and 2025 on topics relating to Community Safety that are of importance to people in our own communities and beyond –Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence; community led Crime Prevention; Road Safety and more – and will also be establishing a Practitioner Forum to provide peer supports to individuals and agencies involved in Community Safety structures.”
Councillor Ms Oonagh Hanlon, (Chairperson of Newry, Mourne & Down Policing & Community Safety Partnership) said: “Collaborative working and shared learning is vitally important in tackling crime across both jurisdictions. The All Island Community Safety Network provides a unique opportunity to raise awareness of the work of our Policing and Community Safety Partnerships (PCSPs) and Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs); to share learning and allow us to build and maintain the relationships which are critical to this work as we strive to make our communities as safe as possible”.
The first event, focusing on policy and practice relating to Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence is being hosted by Drogheda Implementation Board on Tuesday 12th March 2024. Policy makers and practitioners from across Ireland will be in attendance. Enquiries relating to this event should be directed to Drogheda Implementation Board at implementationboard@lmetb.ie.
  
A 65-year-old Ukrainian male, named as Mr Ivan Volkov, of Holm Oak Cottages, Dundrum House Hotel, Dundrum, Co Tipperary, has appeared in court today, charged in connection with an alleged fatal assault in Dundrum, Co Tipperary earlier this week.
Mr Volkov, appeared before a special sitting of the District Court at Newcastlewest, Co. Limerick today, charged with one count of assault and one count of affray causing harm, to Mr Shamil Nabiev aged 69 years, at the Dundrum House Hotel, accommodation centre, on Sunday February 25th last.
Mr Nabiev, a native of Azerbaijan, was injured during the incident and was removed from the scene to Tipperary University Hospital Clonmel, for treatment where he since sadly passed away.
An independent post-mortem examination will now be carried out on Mr Nabiev remains; ordered by Judge Ms Carol Anne Coolican.
Mr Volkov, who was arrested at 9.18am yesterday, Saturday March 2nd, appeared in court using crutches, aided by a Ukrainian interpreter. When the assault charge was put to him, in reply Mr Volkov stated “I didn’t attack, I was defending myself“, but made no reply to the charge against him of affray.
Mr Volkov is understood to suffer from undisclosed serious health issues, and was residing in Dundrum under the status ‘temporary protection refugee’. Granting free legal aid, Judge Ms Carol Anne Coolican instructed that Mr Volkov receive all required necessary medical assistance, while held in custody”.
Mr Volkov is expected to appear before Nenagh District Court on Wednesday March 6th.
A female pedestrian, aged in her 80s, has been hospitalised having received serious injuries, following having been stuck by a tractor in Co Tipperary.
The incident took place at Sean Kelly Square, Carrick-On-Suir, Clonmel, in the southeast of the county, at around 3:30pm on Friday, March 1st last.
The driver of the vehicle failed to remain at the scene of the accident.
The woman was quickly removed to University Hospital Waterford, where she is being treated for what are described as serious injuries.
An Garda Síochána are appealing to anyone who may have witnessed this collision or who may have relevant information, to come forward immediately and assist them with their investigation. They are particularly interested in speaking to anyone with dash-cam or mobile phone footage or those who were in the area at the time.
Anyone with such information is being asked to contact Clonmel Garda Station Tel. No. 052 6177640, the Garda Confidential Line Tel. No. 1800 666 111 or indeed any Garda station.
A 66-year-old former soldier, named as Mr Thomas Carroll, with an address at Brookway, Clonmel, Co Tipperary has appeared before a sitting of Tralee District Court this afternoon, charged with the murder of 84-year-old Paddy O’Mahony in his home, situated at Ballyraemeen, Castlemaine, Co Kerry, on February 24th last.
Detective Sergeant Mark O’Sullivan of Tralee Garda Station gave evidence of his arrest, charge and the cautioning of Mr Carroll at 12:00pm, at New Road Tralee. The court was informed that the accused made no reply to the charge against him.
Mr Justice John King; having granted free legal aid, remanded the accused in custody to Cork Prison, to further appear via video link on Wednesday next, March 6th, to Tralee District Court.
Mr Pat Mann, solicitor for Mr Carroll, requested that his client have continued access to all necessary prescription medication and that he continues to receive all required appropriate medical attention.
- Recruitment campaign expected to be launched soon.
- Revised Regulations provide for more efficient training and more effective deployment of Garda Reserves.
- Target of at least 1,000 Garda Reserve members by 2026.
The Minister for Justice, Mrs Helen McEntee TD, has today received Cabinet approval for updated regulations on recruitment, training and deployment of the Garda Reserve.
She has committed to launching a recruitment campaign as soon as possible and has set a target of 1,000 Garda Reserves by 2026, to further support Garda members nationwide.
The Garda Reserve is a voluntary body drawn from the community to assist An Garda Síochána with local patrols and crime reduction initiatives, policing major incidents and events, and providing operational support to regular Garda members on the basis of the reserve member’s skills or local knowledge.
Welcoming the approval by Cabinet, Mrs McEntee said: “Joining the Garda Reserve is an excellent way to give back to your community, to help make it safer, and to get experience of and an insight into working with An Garda Síochána if that is your longer term career ambition.
The new Regulations provide for a more modern approach, particularly in relation to training. The Garda Commissioner will be in a position to recruit new members of the Garda Reserve and a recruitment campaign is planned for the very near future. It will target a broad and inclusive range of candidates, in keeping with the Reserve’s role as a visible form of community engagement.
It is a priority for me to ensure An Garda Síochána has all of the support it needs to provide the world-class police service we have all come to expect. Building up the Garda Reserve to at least 1,000 members by 2026 to ensure it can meet its full potential is part of that mission”.
Notable changes in the new Regulations include:
- Additional flexibility for training components that ensure new Reserves are trained efficiently and to a high standard enabling Reserve members to have the skills to take up active duty more readily.
- Changes to enable more effective deployment of Garda Reserve members.
- Updates to Reserve members’ hours on duty – Currently, the maximum hours a Garda Reserve member can be requested to work is 208 hours in any 12-month period. Under the new Regulations, Reserves can make themselves available for more hours, should they choose to do so.
- Updated and modernised educational requirements to reflect changes that were introduced to the Leaving Certificate grading system in recent years.
The work of a Garda Reserve is varied and interesting, for example:
- Working along-side the Garda Road Traffic Unit.
- Ensuring public safety during State visits by foreign dignitaries.
- Assisting in public order incidents and in some cases assisting in prosecutions.
- Assisting with crowd control at events such as concerts, sporting events etc.
- Assisting with the regular day-to-day work of An Garda Síochána.
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