Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 April 2023
38. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Justice the progress to date on the Government's commitment to doubling the number of refuge spaces for victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence over the lifetime of the third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17328/23]
View answerMy question is what progress has been made to date on the Government's commitment to doubling the number of refuge spaces available for victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, DSGBV. I ask this question specifically in the context of the Government's commitment to a specific number of spaces, which falls far short of what is required under the Istanbul Convention.
The Deputy is entirely right. We have a commitment to double the number of refuge spaces under the third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. For the avoidance of doubt, this is to double the number of refuge spaces, bringing it to 280.
As the Deputy will be aware, Tusla reviewed the accommodation services for victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and as part of that endeavour, it identified priority locations where between 50 and 60 new refuge places are needed. Further analysis undertaken has identified 12 locations nationwide where the delivery of 98 family refuge spaces would have the most impact if prioritised. In the initial phase of this work, 24 places are now expected to be delivered in Wexford, Dundalk and Navan next year.
In addition, by putting in place robust structures to support the delivery of additional refuge accommodation, including, importantly, the establishment of a new statutory agency on DSGBV, the number of additional spaces that can be opened each year will be supported and accelerated. Already, work undertaken implementing the strategy has prepared the way for this, including, as the Deputy will be aware, a significant increase in funding under the budget.
An interdepartmental group is already developing and progressing agreed processes and approaches to support the highest standard of refuge accommodation. In addition to the 280 places, the delivery of additional safe homes is already a key part of the response and it is expected that the number of safe homes will be increased by 15 this year. Today, pre-legislative scrutiny of the agency took place and went quite well. The factual answer to the Deputy's question, though, is that 24 additional places are expected to be delivered next year in Wexford, Dundalk and Navan. Nationwide, 12 locations have now been identified for the delivery of the 98 family refuge spaces and the review carried out by Tusla regarding the 50 and 60 others. I have more detailed information in the form of a table that I am happy to share with the Deputy. It lists the stage at which each location is now at and the expected delivery time. I had quite a detailed meeting on this subject this week and it is my genuine view that we now have a very clear understanding of the road that needs to be travelled to get us to at least a doubling of spaces. The Deputy is correct that this is not about getting to that point and stopping; it is about getting there and then pushing on further.
I thank the Minister and I would appreciate the table. This is really about acknowledging what it took to get to this point. The Minister's colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, has read out the names of the people who were victims. To put this in context, 12 women died in violent circumstances in Ireland in 2022, making it the worst year in a decade for violence against women. Between 1996 and 8 April 2023, a total of 258 women died violently in Ireland. These statistics show that 165 of these women had been killed in their own homes. Despite a programme for Government commitment to introducing domestic homicide reviews, we have not seen this yet. Sinéad Gibney, chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, stated in January this year that "Violence against women has reached crisis levels in Ireland". I will come in my second contribution to the other steps that got us this far and the significant and serious delays in this regard. There is no room, therefore, for any more delay or hesitation.
I assure the Deputy, on my part and those of the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, that this is a major area of priority in the Department of Justice and across the Government. The Deputy referred to the familicide review and we do have that report in the Department. I have considered it in quite a lot of detail. I met the commissioner of that report and her researcher recently. I intend to engage with the families who fed into that process very shortly. Once I have done that, I intend to then brief the Government and seek to publish the report and a way forward in this regard. I take the Deputy's point about coming from a very low base but we do now have a scenario where we know exactly where we are going. In addition to Wexford, Navan and Dundalk, we now know about the plans for Sligo, Cavan or Monaghan, Cork city, north Cork, west Cork, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Westmeath, Athlone, Portlaoise, Balbriggan, Longford, Offaly and Carlow. I say that in the hope of assuring the House and, most importantly, to assure women, and indeed anybody, at risk of violence that there is now a clear, identifiable plan as to where we are going to deliver the extra spaces and how we are going to get to that number of 280 places during the lifetime of this strategy.
I welcome that information and I will work with the Minister every step of the way. We had, however, a previous strategy. When the review of it was done and published in July 2021, it told us that the audit around DSGBV found a lack of effective oversight of implementation of the previous national strategy, a fragmented approach and a lack of action on decades of recommendations. On top of that, the review by Tusla was two years late. It was promised and it was still not done two years later. The third national strategy was supposed to have been published by the end of 2021 and it was not. It took another six months after that. Every step of the way, I refer to the voices raised in this regard in this Dáil, based on communications from the organisations on the ground. I mention, for example, Domestic Violence Response, DRV, in Oughterard. I received an email from the organisation today. It is struggling on the ground in trying to deal with the number of people and specifically, women coming in. I can stand here and criticise, which is not really what I want to do. This situation is simply intolerable and unacceptable. We need action. What we are promising in terms of refuges is the most basic step and still it is less than 50% of what the Istanbul Convention commits us to.
It is accepted by me, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the whole of the Government that these 280 places are not the end destination. It is, though, where we realistically believe that pulling out all the stops and going at this with gusto and prioritisation is truthfully where we can get to in the lifetime of this strategy. I have even a greater degree of confidence about this after having engaged with the team in the Department of Justice in this regard. We have gone from a scenario where we had counties in Ireland where we knew we needed refuges but regarding which we had no clue what organisation was going to be leading on the delivery, to a scenario now where we have an agency or local organisation beside each agency. We have most of the sites secured, to give this aspect as an example. I will provide the Deputy with more detail of this in a note.
I think this strategy, and I give credit to my colleague, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, in this regard, is different to its predecessors in respect of its implementation structures. It has been recognised by the sector, if I may call it that, all the NGOs and stakeholders, as probably one of the most ambitious strategies ever. Delivery and implementation are key, however; I get this. The structures to deliver in this regard are pretty robust, though. We have a high-level oversight group co-chaired by the Secretaries General of the Departments of the Taoiseach and Justice. We have a senior officials group, SOG, pulling together all the Departments and a Cabinet committee monitoring it. We also have individual actions. I take the point, however, that delivery and implementation are key in this context.
