Since the Minister took office, he has placed a significant focus on increased Garda visibility in Dublin city centre, part of which he represents as a constituency TD. His prioritisation of the city centre seems to be working, and I say "well done" on that, but there is the rest of the country and what about the rest of Dublin? It is not the first time I have raised this issue. Communities outside Dublin city centre like mine, the K district, are crying out for more gardaí to tackle low-level crime and antisocial behaviour and much more serious crime too. No community should be left behind but I fear that is what is happening. We need the new local community safety partnerships. Our colleague, the previous Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, drove the Act through the Oireachtas. It was signed into law by the President in February 2024. The first chairs were announced in October.

The last joint policing committee in Dublin West was over a year ago, so when will the partnerships be fully established and when will more communities see more gardaí?

I thank the Deputy. I agree with her there are more gardaí on the streets of Dublin city centre and it has had a very positive impact. It is not the intention and I hope it is not the effect that gardaí are taken from different areas. I do not think that is the case. The Commissioner has made a decision that a significant number of new recruits coming out will be put in Dublin in the first instance, but others are being transferred to other parts of the country as well. Obviously, all this is dependent on recruiting more people into An Garda Síochána. We had a good recruitment campaign where 6,700 people expressed interest in joining the force. We need to translate that into membership of the force, as the biggest problem gardaí have is their popularity and their success. People want to see them everywhere.

On the community safety partnerships, I will be signing those regulations shortly and I hope that will enable the partnerships to get up and running.