Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 November 2016
574. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will publish figures provided from Tusla of adults and children in domestic violence refuges on a monthly basis to allow the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government to include these figures in their monthly homeless reports. [36272/16]
View answerIn 2016, Tusla, the Child and Family Agency has allocated funding of €20.6m for a network of some 60 organisations providing services to victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in Ireland. Almost €12.0m is provided for emergency refuge and support services, a further €4.6m is provided for other community based domestic violence support services and €4.0m is provided for rape crisis centres.
In 2016, Tusla is providing funding for 147 family units of emergency refuge spaces and eight family units of emergency non-refuge spaces. This includes eight additional family units of accommodation; six additional family units of emergency accommodation in Dublin and Kildare and two emergency safe housing units in Sligo which were funded by Tusla in 2016. On foot of Budget 2017, Tusla will be increasing its investment nationally on domestic violence services. The level of increase will be set out in Tusla's 2017 Business Plan, which will be submitted to me for consideration.
In 2016, Tusla established a project to address data and information needs for domestic, sexual and gender based violence services as a first step to achieving a comprehensive dataset across domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services and to enable it to meet its reporting obligations nationally. Tusla will continue to work with service provider organisations to achieve an enhanced dataset in 2017. Data collected will be published and shared with all relevant stakeholders. Tusla will also engage with stakeholders to progress data developments that are in the interest of service user needs.
My priority, and that of Tusla's, is to ensure that the needs of women and children fleeing domestic violence are being met in the most effective way possible. I am committed to continuing support for these vital services.
