Mr. Seán Cooke:

When we talk about children and trauma, it is not always in terms of physical abuse - it can also involve being a witness to the other abuse that happens within the home and its impact. The other critical thing is how being a witness or a victim as a child translates towards being a victim or perpetrating later in life. That is something we have come across. We believe a significant amount of work needs to be done to recognise the trauma that children experience within these kinds of relationships and the impact that has on them, and on the relationships they have with their parents and members of their extended family.

The legacy of Covid has been mentioned. I fully concur with Ms McDermott's comment that Covid did not bring about domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, but it certainly increased the visibility of such violence. One positive thing that emerged from Covid was an initiative within the Department of Justice. When the pandemic began, the concepts of staying at home and staying safe were anathema for people who found themselves in certain circumstances. As a result, the Department brought together a consortium of organisations that provide safety and supports to victims of domestic violence as part of a campaign to ensure people knew that support was still available and in place. A really significant campaign, stillhere.ie, came out of that. It was really important that the Department listened to the providers on the ground and took their advice. The initial conversation was not about the stillhere.iecampaign, but something else. When the campaign came about, it let people know that help was still available and that it was okay for them to travel outside the 5 km limit to seek support. That is a positive legacy. Certainly the Department is looking at other ways to address these issues, including coercive control. We saw the recent media campaigns on coercive control.