James Cox Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has today announced the allocation of grants totalling €2 million, from seized criminal proceeds, to successful applicants to the Community Safety Innovation Fund. It is the first round of grants given out since Minister McEntee and Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath established the Community Safety Innovation Fund – which reinvests the proceeds of crime seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau in local projects to "build stronger, safer communities". Twenty-two community projects across the country are set to benefit from grants ranging from €5,000 to €150,000, which will support the delivery of innovative projects to improve community safety in their local areas. The Community Safety Innovation Fund was established in April 2021 and €2 million was allocated to it under Budget 2022 - and this will increase to €3 million next year under Budget 2023. Ms McEntee said: “This fund reflects the successes of An Garda Síochána and the Criminal Assets Bureau in identifying and seizing the ill-gotten gains of criminals. Equally, people across Ireland are working tirelessly in their communities to prevent crime from taking hold and make their local areas safer. “Working together, we will build stronger, safer communities. By putting this money back into the community, we can show that there is a direct link between the activities of law enforcement and improving community safety. “Based on the high quality of proposals received, I believe the successful projects have the potential to have a real impact on their respective communities. “I also want to encourage those who applied this year but did not receive funding to apply next year – we are increasing the size of the fund by 50 per cent under Budget 2023. My Department will provide guidance on how to achieve a successful application.”

Community safety and youth justice

The funding call for the Community Safety Innovation Fund invited applications from community safety initiatives as well as groups co-funded with local authorities, NGOs and community organisations working on issues relevant to community safety and youth justice. The fund opened for applications in April 2022 and a total of 124 were received by the deadline of June 8th. McEntee added: “Community Safety is about people being safe and, just as importantly, feeling safe within their communities. It’s vital that we empower our communities to proactively address concerns and build stronger and safer communities. “One of the objectives of this fund was to encourage the development of innovative ways to improve community safety from those people who best understand local community safety needs. Each project has detailed how best the community wants to prevent crime and their proposals reflect community priorities and local safety issues.” Ms McEntee will today visit the Dublin North Inner City Local Community Safety Partnership based in Dublin’s North inner-city and the Meath Travellers Workshop, two organisations that will receive funding for projects to improve community safety under the initiative. The Dublin Local Community Safety Partnership have received funding for a Community Safety Warden Scheme, which will help people safely enjoy the recreational space in Wolfe Tone Park and its environs through the employment of local community safety wardens. The Meath Travellers Workshop engages with young members of the Travelling community who may be vulnerable to falling into crime across Meath.