Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 April 2023
414. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Justice the status of the promised SAVI II Report; when the report will be finished; when the report will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19311/23]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, in 2017, at the request of the Minister for Justice, the CSO instigated the process of carrying out a survey to provide high quality national prevalence data on sexual violence in Ireland.
The results of that survey have now been published and are available on the CSO website at www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-svsmr/sexualviolencesurvey2022mainresults/.
The survey covers a range of behaviours from non-contact sexual violence right through to non-consensual sexual intercourse, or rape.
We knew that this was an area that tended to be under-reported and that the numbers we have had up to now did not reflect the true extent of the problem. That is why my Department commissioned the CSO to undertake this wide-scale, nationally representative prevalence survey.
We now know the full extent of this problem and we have a baseline to measure the impact of our work across Government, as well as to help us to develop policy and provide the necessary supports and services. It also underlines the importance of having our whole of government zero tolerance approach to DSGBV.
This is clearly set out in our ambitious third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender based violence. This strategy, co-designed with the sector, fully recognises the need for a whole of government, whole of society, approach to tackling all forms of domestic, sexual and gender based violence.
The actions within it reflect the importance of a range of areas, including education, training, awareness raising, supports, robust legislation and importantly, having a victim centred approach to all of our work in this priority area. We are committed to delivering on the goal of this strategy - a society that does not accept any form of domestic, sexual or gender based violence.
As the Deputy will be aware, the Strategy’s accompanying implementation plan, which runs to the end of this year, sets out 144 detailed actions which are assigned to my Department and other agencies and Departments across Government. A key part of implementation will be the establishment of the new statutory DSGBV Agency which will ensure a permanent and dedicated focus on this important area of work.
