Ms Sharon O'Halloran:

I thank the Chairman and other members of the committee for the invitation to make this presentation. SAFE Ireland is a national representative voice for domestic violence services throughout Ireland. We are working to ensure that one day Ireland can be proud to be the safest country in the world for women and children. There are many areas we would like to present to the committee today and we are delighted therefore that some of our members and colleagues will be addressing these areas, which are housing and homelessness, impacts on children, the impact of habitual residency, particularly on migrant women, and additional barriers for migrant women, ethnic minority women and women with disabilities.

I also wish to highlight our belief that to tackle the issue of domestic violence, there needs to be significant investment in primary prevention strategies and awareness campaigns designed to change attitudes and behaviours in this country. We need to break apart the stereotypes of the victim and abuser and replace our shame culture with one of openness and care.

In 2012, SAFE Ireland recorded that 8,449 and 3,606 children received direct one-to-one support from specialist domestic violence support services in Ireland. In the same year, domestic violence services answered in excess of 50,000 helpline calls from throughout the country. I acknowledge the work of the critical front-line domestic violence services throughout the country. They are lifelines to women and children.

Domestic violence is an enormous and horrific societal problem both globally and in Ireland. We know from a forthcoming EU prevalence study by the Fundamental Rights Agency that approximately 10% of women who experienced a serious incident of physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner have sought support from a victim support service or refuge. That being the case, we are dealing with the tip of the iceberg. SAFE Ireland will be co-hosting a seminar in Dublin on 5 March that will launch this prevalence study, which is the largest of its kind in Europe.

SAFE Ireland believes that the issue of domestic violence needs to be held at the highest decision-making level in Ireland until such time as we have sufficient infrastructure, investment and innovation in place to support victims, reduce prevalence and hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes.

We believe it is time to stop seeing the solution to this as personal to the woman, ingrained in her choice to stay or leave an abusive, violent relationship. We must be more consistent in holding perpetrators of violence to account. Our current review of the legal system through the lens of women's experiences has been carried out because women told us that there has never been any criminal prosecution for the litany of crimes committed against them. Women have told us they did not have their, in their own words, "day in court". This is disturbing when on hears that the crimes committed included repeated rape, child abuse, murder of the unborn child, attempted murder, threats to kill, assault causing harm, harassment, mental torture, bullying, stalking and false imprisonment.

Safe Ireland believes it is critical to have a root and branch review of the legal system to address what appear to be systemic failures. Much of the legal system response to date has been to focus on civil remedies, which are important in addressing immediate safety issues but not designed to address the crimes committed against the victims. Over the past six years, we have developed a substantial body of knowledge based on women’s and children’s experience of domestic violence. Our current research of women’s experiences of the legal system has identified eight consistent and overarching themes which form the basis of our recommendations, already submitted to the committee for consideration.

The emerging themes that require consideration and urgent attention are the right to be heard - collection, preservation and presentation of evidence; the consequences of the court not hearing the evidence; consistency and continuity in the application of the law; the victim and perpetrator stereotypes; the importance of good advocacy, expertise and policing; the need for a legal definition of domestic violence; why she does not just leave; and the dangers of a fragmented system. There are 27 recommendations that flow from these themes that require our attention and consideration. As we have developed them, we have been mindful of any unintended consequences for the victim.

I acknowledge the progress made by the Government in recent months to legislate for its statutory duty to care for and protect victims of domestic and sexual violence through the establishment of the Child and Family Agency, Tusla. We also welcome the commitment by the Minister for Justice and Equality to implement the EU directive on victims’ rights by 2015, the recent publication of the heads of the child and family relations Bill, last week’s commitment to publish a new domestic violence Bill in 2015 and the Government’s plans to establish a family law court. The next 12 months offers the Administration considerable opportunities to develop infrastructure and legislative change which will have the potential to make a significant and positive difference for thousands of women.