Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 December 2021
435. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Justice the details of domestic violence recorded in 2021 to date; the way it compares to previous years; the additional training that has been provided to An Garda Síochána in dealing with domestic violence incidents; and the additional resources that have been allocated by An Garda Síochána to deal with this issue. [60044/21]
Amharc ar fhreagra440. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for Justice the number of domestic violence incidents reported to gardaí in each of the years 2017 to 2020 and to date in 2021, respectively; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [60134/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 435 and 440 together.
The Government is committed to tackling domestic, sexual and gender based violence in all its forms, and to supporting victims of this heinous crime.
The Government's commitment to combatting domestic, sexual and gender based violence and to supporting victims is reflected in the funding allocated under Budget 2022, with a total of €13m allocated to my Department for its work in this area. This represents an increased allocation of €5.35m and will enable us to roll out specific awareness raising and training programmes to combat domestic, sexual and gender based violence. It will also allow us to provide additional supports to NGOs and specific domestic violence intervention programmes and it will support a number of front line activities.
As part of this, an additional €1.1m will be used to put in place a legal advice and legal aid service in court for victims of sexual violence and €1 million is being provided to the Garda vote to refurbish and upgrade the Divisional Protective Service Units. This will allow us to better support and protect vulnerable victims.
The Deputy will be aware that my Department is leading the development across government of the Third National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence. This plan will outline how the government will radically improve services and supports for victims and will be the most ambitious plan to date.
My Department is also currently implementing Supporting a Victim’s Journey , our plan to help victims and vulnerable witnesses in sexual violence cases which I published last year. Its implementation will reform the criminal justice system at every point a victim comes into contact with it, while our work on public awareness campaigns will further strengthen work to prevent these crimes.
The additional funding secured under Budget 2022 will allow us to continue to build on the work undertaken this year. We will continue to work to improve the system for victims, to better support them so they have confidence to reach out for help and report what has happened.
On foot of the Deputy's question, I contacted our colleagues in An Garda Síochána to seek the specific information sought by the Deputy and that is presented below:
To determine the number of Domestic Abuse incidents reported in a given timeframe a number of criteria are applied. The counts in the table below are a combination of the following:
The incident type is one of:
- Breach of Interim Barring Order
- Breach of Protection Order
- Breach of Barring Order
- Breach of Safety Order
- Domestic Dispute - No Offence Disclosed
- Breach of Emergency Barring Order
or is of any incident type, but with a recorded motive of ‘Domestic Abuse’.
The table below shows incidents reported in the years 2017 – 2021. The figure for 2021 includes incidents reported up to and including 01st December 2021.
|
Year Reported |
Domestic Abuse Incidents |
|
2017 |
21,993 |
|
2018 |
24,286 |
|
2019 |
30,247 |
|
2020 |
35,008 |
|
2021 |
34,410 |
Operation Faoiseamh commenced on 01 April 2020 and is an initiative undertaken by An Garda Síochána for the purpose of providing enhanced proactive support to victims of domestic abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Garda National Protective Service Bureau (GNPSB) oversees the implementation of this proactive initiative, which was launched with the aim of ensuring that victims of domestic abuse are supported and protected.
