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A COMMUNITY SAFETY partnership is in talks to begin tracking incidents of racism in Dublin.

Members of the Dublin North Central’s Local Community Safety Partnership (LCSP) want to carry out the survey by setting up a subgroup within the LCSP to track such incidents.

As one of 36 such partnerships nationwide, the LCSP have replaced the former Joint Policing Committees that were run between local councils and gardaí around the country.

The LCSPs bring together local politicians, people working in the HSE and Tusla, local gardaí and other community representatives.

Janet Horner, a Green Party councillor sitting on the Dublin North Central partnership, told The Journal that there needs to be a greater focus on issues experienced by the migrant community.

Horner sees it as a way of deepening relationships between Dublin’s migrant communities and gardaí while trying to help authorities spot patterns in these instances of racist abuse. The Dublin North Central LCSP already runs a subcommittee on drug issues.

Last September, an analysis by The Journal Investigates found that one in three hate attacks and incidents recorded by gardaí in 2024 were racially motivated.

Horner said that she is “hearing all the time of racist abuse and general fear” from people in migrant communities.

“But I often ask people, did you report to the gardaí? And people say no or that, if they did, nothing happened,” she added.

Horner explained that she has heard people express a feeling that “there’s no point” in reporting a racial crime, or that they “don’t feel gardaí are on their side” after an incident.

“With that in mind I think it would be really worthwhile to have a way to build a relationship with the gardaí, notice the patterns and understand a bit better what’s going on,” Horner said.

The Green councillor said the LCSP needs to “understand where the fear is”, and that the subcommittee would aim to involve migrant groups and representatives.

This would involve reaching out through mother and parenting networks to “see can they build better relationships and address safety concerns that way”, Horner said.

“It’s an important area of work so I hope we can do something relevant there,” Horner said.

The Journal’s reporting of the new Local Community Safety Partnerships is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.

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