Ms Mary McDermott:

I will try to be as quick as I can here but, obviously, this is a huge question. The starting point here - we put it in our No Going Back document - is we are dealing currently with a 19th century infrastructure trying to respond to 21st century problems. There is no coherent national process around this. I need not say that the services - the front-line providers - are working day and night to try and provide services under very stressed circumstances but what is really of burden to them is that every year there are annual service level agreements, SLA, and there is no long-term planning. Multi-annual funding is it.

I refer to the backroom work that we need to do for governance, compliancy and recording. I note that last week there was an extended discussion around issues of therapeutic notes and disclosure, recording and data protection. All of these issues are a burden and our front-line services - every one of those independent organisations - need full resourcing to do that back work. Everyone in this chamber will fully appreciate that over the past two years under Covid people responded from the heart with great generosity. They want to see the front-line provision but it is difficult to get well-grounded fully sustained resourcing for the backroom work for compliance, governance, finance, data protection, and IT infrastructure and managing in order that we can communicate with each other in a systematic and meaningful way and, therefore, crucially, that we can provide a coherent national fully-functioning 21st century infrastructure for domestic violence in the country.

With regard to regional structures, in response to Deputy Clarke I would say that there are various options. We have worked positively with An Garda Síochána. There are various ways in which we interact but, again, I would say this is part of the national strategy's work. We should not in a rush shoehorn domestic violence into any of the previous existing structures that are inappropriate. We should take time, sit down, draw up the terms of reference, make the process consultative and co-design, which, as we know, is welcomed at present. That is what we need.

I do not know if my colleague, Ms Lisa Marmion, has anything to say. Ms Marmion has been sitting, witnessing.