Mr. Bernard Gloster:

On the issue of funding for the DSGPV sector, the total funding available to Tusla for domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services in 2020 was just over €25 million - €25.3 million, I think. The Minister has now determined and announced an increase for 2021 to a total provision of €30 million. Of the €25.3 million provided in 2020, the majority of that, about €23.5 million, has been given directly to the 60 provider agencies that operate on our behalf in the space of domestic violence response, including Safe Ireland and many others. All of the increase in funding in 2021 is going directly to that sector, so Tusla's own internal direct spend is not increasing. The increase will essentially break down as follows. A total of €2.7 million will go into what is called core funding, so from January, the sector will increase by €2.7 million. The actual allocation to individual agencies has not yet been finalised within that because it is not simply a case of dividing €2.7 million by 60 agencies, because although they all have needs, some have different pressures.

That funding takes the funding for the sector up to €28 million, and in addition to that, provision has been made to set aside €2 million specifically to support the sector through those organisations to respond further to what are unknown challenges that Covid has yet to bring for the sector. However, all of that €2 million will be spent, made available and utilised within the sector in 2021, so that will bring the total spend in 2021 to €30 million.