Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 8 June 2016
679. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the annual spend on domestic violence services for households experiencing homelessness from 2012 to 2016 to date in tabular form. [14633/16]
View answerTusla, the Child and Family Agency, has statutory responsibility for the care and protection of victims of domestic, sexual and gender based violence whether in the context of the family or otherwise. At all times, Tusla’s key priority is to ensure that the needs of victims of domestic and sexual violence are being met in the best way possible.
A network of 60 organisations provide services to victims of domestic, sexual and gender based violence in Ireland, including 20 services providing emergency refuge accommodation to women and children and 24 community-based domestic violence services.
The Agency has established a more co-ordinated approach for provision of these services with a dedicated national budget of €20.6m in 2016. This includes an additional €200,000 to support implementation of obligations under the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention).
In 2015, particular priority was given to protecting frontline services, and in that context, funding for services for victims of domestic and sexual violence survivors was protected. Continuing with this commitment, in 2016, funding to domestic violence services has been protected at the same level as 2015 overall, with some additional provision for emergency accommodation in the greater Dublin area for an extra eight family units of emergency accommodation and also enhanced access to community based outreach services for victims.
Tusla has advised that it does not hold the details of annual spend on domestic violence services for households who experience homelessness within the totality of domestic violence services.
Domestic violence refuge services can provide services for women and children fleeing domestic violence who are temporarily homeless. However, this is only a subset of the total number of households experiencing homelessness and domestic violence, and many of these families do not appear in homeless data if they return to the family home or find other accommodation solutions.
Details of total Tusla funding for domestic violence services is set out in the following table. Tusla has further advised that it does not hold funding details for domestic violence services prior to 2014 as these services were previously funded by the Health Service Executive.
|
Tusla funding for Domestic Violence Services 2014 |
Tusla funding for Domestic Violence Services 2015 |
Tusla funding for Domestic Violence Services January - end June 2016 |
|
€13,356,008.12 |
€15,644,044.44* |
€7,475,707.33 |
*Includes funding transferred from the Department of Environment Community and Local Government.
