Niamh Smyth
Question:43. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Justice his plans to tackle the increasing rate of violence against women being reported across the country. [18007/23]
View answerTuesday, 18 April 2023
Questions (43)
Oral answers (7 contributions)
This question asks the Minister what plans he has to tackle the increasing levels of reporting of sexual violence against women.
I thank the Deputy for asking the question. The Government's zero tolerance strategy, published last year, is an ambitious five-year programme of reform aimed at achieving a society which does not accept, in any way, shape or form, domestic, sexual and gender-based violence or, crucially, the attitudes which underpin it. Built on the four pillars of the Istanbul Convention, the strategy was accompanied by an implementation plan which runs to the end of this year, setting out 144 detailed actions assigned to various Departments and agencies. Some of the key elements of the strategy, as the Deputy knows, include the establishment of a statutory DSGBV agency. There is an agency in law to drive forward the agenda and co-ordinate in respect of this issue. The strategy also includes the doubling of the number of refuge places to 280 during its lifetime, an expansion of supports for victims and the strengthening of legislative provisions. A number of Bills are going through these Houses as we speak and there will be more between now and the summer recess to advance that cause. The strategy will also work to raise awareness of DSGBV and the supports available. The Deputy will be aware, as I hope the country at large is, of the number of public awareness campaigns to raise awareness of these issues.
In March, I published the general scheme of the Bill to establish the new agency and my intention is that it will be established and operational in January next year. The Joint Committee on Justice undertook pre-legislative scrutiny today and I look forward to its report. Under budget 2023, an extra €9 million was secured for combating DSGBV. That was an unprecedented increase of 22%.
Taken together with our ambitious but deliverable plans for the development of refuge accommodation, I am confident that the investment needed to implement in full this €363 million strategy will make a real and lasting impact on the experience of victims of DSGBV. I am pleased to say that we have already made significant progress on the legislative front since the publication of the strategy, with measures progressing to double the maximum sentence for assault causing harm, introduce stand-alone offences for stalking and non-fatal strangulation, and introduce a new sexual offences Bill to update the law around consent and provide new supports for victims.
I also recently welcomed the enactment of legislation which will improve the management and monitoring of sex offenders in the community, including an update of the rule around the sex offenders register.
I thank the Minister. I appreciate, as he outlined, that much has been done in this area, especially in the past 12 to 18 months. However, we are discussing this issue in a context where the trend is clear. There has been a significant increase in violence against women in recent years. The statistics show that 12 women died violently in 2022, which is the highest number since 2007. I can speak from a west Cork perspective. The statistics for the area show that in 2019, 48 cases of rape or sexual assault were reported. That number increased to 70 in 2020 and to 105 in 2021. There is a clear and obvious trend there and the number of such incidents is increasing.
Not long ago, we had an emotional session of statements in this House in response to the death of Ashling Murphy. Women talked about having to carry keys with them as they went about their daily business. There is a real urgency here. The Minister mentioned that the agency will be established in January but I hope he realises the need for urgency.
I fully acknowledge the need for urgency and am confident that the Government and both Houses see the need too, for all the reasons the Deputy has outlined. As a Government or as an Oireachtas, we do not establish new agencies very often. I hope the fact that we have taken a decision to establish a new agency assures the women of Ireland and the people of Ireland more broadly that we are taking this issue seriously and applying priority to it. The ambitious timeline of establishing the agency by next January will be met. I am very grateful to the justice committee for its work on pre-legislative scrutiny. I look forward to the co-operation of everyone in this House and the Upper House to ensure that is the case.
We have also commissioned the Central Statistics Office, CSO, to undertake a wide-scale public survey on the prevalence of sexual violence in Ireland. The results of this, due for publication tomorrow, will provide us with an important baseline, for which we have looked for many years, going forward, for developing policy, supports and services, and for evaluating the impact of our work. I assure the Deputy that this remains a major priority. There is no one thing that we can do. It is about doing many things. That is why the detailed implementation plan, including the 144 actions, is key.
I will use my remaining time to underline the seriousness of the situation in west Cork. I outlined the statistics earlier. There were 48 cases of sexual assault and rape in 2019, increasing to 70 in 2020 and to 105 in 2021. There is a serious issue there and there is a serious lack of services in the west Cork area. It was mentioned as one of the regions where refuges should be provided in the future. It is paramount that we provide a refuge there to offer proper services. Women who have been through the most traumatic of experiences have to drive for two or two and a half hours to services in Cork city. That is a dark and bleak drive. In some instances, women who do not have cars have to use public transport. They have to arrange babysitting. It is a nightmare. The very least we can do is provide proper, adequate services for women who have been through situations they should never have gone through in the first place. I ask the Minister to take a personal interest in reaching out to the West Cork Women Against Violence Project, which is a fantastic advocacy group that has all the blueprints done for what a refuge should look like. I would appreciate it if the Minister would reach out to its representatives.
I will mention Carlow. We have seen an enormous increase in violence against women, particularly during the pandemic. I am working with a lot of agencies in Carlow for a women's refuge. We are one of nine counties that do not have a refuge. It is important that Carlow gets its refuge as soon as possible. I know a lot of work has been done. I have knocked on the Minister's door several times, and will continue to do so. Two of the issues we need to look at in respect of a women's refuge are wraparound supports and step-down facilities. If a woman is in a women's refuge, she needs to have a step-down facility so that she can move out when the time is right. I again ask the Minister for a commitment as soon as possible to get our women's refuge up and running and to provide the services around it.
I thank Deputies Christopher O'Sullivan and Murnane O'Connor. Regarding west Cork, Deputy O'Sullivan is correct that this is an area the Government has identified through its work with Tusla as a priority location for a new refuge. I would be very happy to engage with the organisation doing the work on the ground there. If he wishes to bring a delegation to Leinster House, I would be happy to meet them with my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, to see how we can support them. It is very much a partnership approach as Deputy Murnane O'Connor will know with Carlow. Carlow is another area that has been identified to get to the 280 spaces. In this partnership approach, we identify a lead organisation on the ground. Certain steps need to be followed. It is not adversarial in any sense. It is about all of us working together and pulling together. We are fortunate to have these excellent organisations working with us.
On the step-down piece, Deputy Murnane O'Connor is entirely correct. We talk about refuge spaces and we need to get to 280 and power on. We also need to do more of the safe homes. We will see an increase of at least 15 safe homes this year because that is also an important part of providing an accommodation solution to somebody at a very difficult and vulnerable time.