Dr. Clíona Saidléar:

In the context of what we need to think about in terms of resources and capacity, Ms Benson mentioned the Tusla research on housing. In many ways, one of the ambitions, expectations or hopes we had for Tusla was that there would finally be national planning. After more than 40 years of services in this area, we hoped we would have national planning rather than being dependent on the capacity, goodwill and activism in towns and villages across the country where people built services from the ground up. That national planning still has not happened. We still do not have national planning of the delivery of services on domestic and sexual violence. Obviously, that will be part of the expectation in respect of the new agency, but it will be two years before we have that new agency. The Department of Justice, to which this is all transferring, is certainly aware of this and is beginning to put in place multi-annual funding, which gives us a little more security. A mindset shift is required in terms of the type of resources we are considering here. For example, we should not be afraid to say that as a starting point we need to double the funding. It is not about another €1 million here or another few hundred thousand euro there. Let us start with that figure, double it and not be afraid of that. That is the mindset we need.

As regards rape crisis centres across the country, one of the things to which we are being asked to respond right now is the influx of refugees from Ukraine. For us, there is obviously a question in respect of the trauma people are bringing with them and how we, as specialists in the area of sexual violence, might be able to contribute in that regard. One of the things that is clearly needed right now relates to the fact that the rape crisis centres on the ground can do inter-agency work with all the local actors that are engaging with those Ukrainian refugees coming into the country, but where are they meant to find the spare capacity to spend their day out with their partners in the community doing that support work and ensuring good practice, safe disclosure and safe referral pathways? There is a need to think more broadly about the type of capacity needed in centres rather than counting, if one likes, the units of service delivery in terms of counselling hours, for example. A much more creative and broad understanding of the type of services rape crisis centres and domestic violence services offer on the ground is needed.