Ms Margaret O'Keeffe:

I am a lecturer in the department of applied social studies at Cork Institute of Technology. The law and social policy elements have been informed by my work there. Today I am speaking on behalf of MOVE Ireland, with which I have been working as a volunteer for the past 13 years. I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in this important discussion. Not surprisingly some of what I have to say will echo the concerns outlined earlier.

MOVE stands for men overcoming violence and is an organisation that has been in Ireland for some 25 years. In that time it has evolved from using a mainly self-help approach to one which prioritises the safety of women and children living with or affected by domestic violence. We work with men in a structured group programme using an accredited and recognised programme of delivery. We recognise that domestic violence and abuse is predominantly in the context of a man being the perpetrator, and a woman and possibly children being victims. We consider the safety of women and children as the bedrock on which we organise and develop the work we do with men. We only work with men in a heterosexual context. At the moment there is no service for people in same-sex relationships.

MOVE offers two services, one for women partners, or ex-partners, and one for men. When a man wants to join a MOVE programme he has to furnish details of his partner or ex-partner - that is core to the woman's safety - in order that MOVE can make contact with the woman and offer individual support via our dedicated partner contact workers, who are all women with experience in domestic violence outreach work. These people are from external agencies to maximise safety. These are all within accredited women's services. MOVE has found that this can be the first time a woman will have contact with a support service dedicated to her.

The first priority is to understand what risk the man may pose to the woman and any children, and what type of safety plan can alleviate this. It is important for us to get the woman’s account of the violence or abuse in order to fully understand the dynamics of what is happening, as we have found and the literature shows abusers will generally minimise what they do and downplay its perceived impact. That is a core safety principle. Ultimately it is the partner, the woman, who can best attest to whether a man has changed his behaviour. Any information we receive from partners is used to inform our intervention but never shared or alluded to in working with the men, as this not only would be a breach of privacy, but also potentially dangerous.

The MOVE partner contact is core to what we do and we work with women for at least three months after a man finishes a programme. This is important in order to understand if change is happening and being maintained, and to refer the woman on to longer-term support services. In this situation our partner contact workers are either working in local women’s services or have long-standing relationships with them, and may have already introduced a woman to the wider service options available to her and her children. Her wellbeing and safety are central.

MOVE adopts an interagency approach. This is important and consistent with best practice because it widens the information and expertise base, and also creates a unified and clear approach to working with both perpetrators and victims of domestic violence or abuse. This co-ordinated approach is consistent with what is deemed to be best practice in the field of intervention work with men who abuse in their intimate relationships because he is getting an unequivocal message that what he is doing is wholly unacceptable and will result in sanctions.

We use a dual focus in working with a man. The first strand is that domestic violence and abuse takes place in a society which continues to prescribe gender roles for men and women. Generally women are still conceptualised as the primary care givers and men are still at the top of the work hierarchy. The split of gender roles creates attitudes around what a woman should provide and what a man can expect to receive. It is impossible to undertake work with men without recognising this wider structural context for domestic violence and how it is justified by society. We often tend to see his individual problem when it is a societal issue that demands a clear unequivocal societal response.

We are talking here at the very least about potentially criminal acts and that is not given sufficient weight. In the work we do we try to promote positive behavioural change in the man. Core to that is getting him to recognise that what he is doing is wrong and hurtful, and has a harmful impact. That is the assessment level when we decide whether the man is sufficiently motivated to change.

While what we do is very useful and consistent with good practice, we are absolutely clear that we remain a tiny part of a very complex and intricate system which tends not to take full cognisance of the damage done to women and children in domestic violence situations. Overall we echo the concerns already raised here. We also recommend that the kinds of mechanisms that have been instituted under the UK Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act, particularly specialist domestic violence courts, multiagency specialist domestic violence courts, multiagency risk-assessment conferences and independent domestic violence advisors, should be considered in the Irish context.

Responses to domestic violence or abuse need to be victim-centred in their approach. These need to address where they will live, how they will survive economically and what will happen when the abuser is released from prison.

In the current economic climate trying to respond effectively to women and children is quite difficult. The Garda is a key resource for women trying to survive and leave domestic violence. The high standards of this work must be maintained.

There is a need to eradicate indirect discrimination as well as discriminatory measures perpetuated through societal norms and views. In the case of ethnic minority women there is also a need to address the complexity of how public, State and institutional practices intersect with racism and class and gender oppression. These factors produce outcomes, which make it more difficult for women not only to disclose abuse but also to access services which support positive decision-making in very complex situations.

I thank the committee for its time. I welcome any comments or questions.