Ms Mary McDermott:

Safe Ireland thanks the committee for this opportunity to address the general scheme of the domestic, sexual and gender-based violence agency Bill. We welcome the formation of the new agency strongly and urge that it be established at the outset with all capacity to do the work to remove domestic, sexual and gender-based violence from Ireland and, indeed, to eradicate it. The agency’s direct functions under head 14 must include the generation of policy, rather than the weaker role of simple policy co-ordination, as proposed, alongside its other functions. All functions of the agency must be integrated and shaped by its own evidenced policy, which must be grounded in international best practice, the expertise of support services and appropriate State agents and services. Additionally, given the stresses of the politics of representation in contemporary life, innovative methodologies are required to draw on the ranges of emergent experience provided directly by survivors, their families and communities. The holistic connection between policy and service provision is envisaged in the third national strategy. Within the new agency, the everyday work of policy generation and development cannot be separated structurally from the evidentiary feedback loop provided by these front-facing engagements. Such separation is not best practice. It appears to us as a problematic replication of the problems of fragmentation we seek to overcome. Positioning the agency primarily as a service provider will repeat these former problems.

Full integration of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence policy generation within the agency and all other prescribed functions will provide the Minister with the best possible advice, proposals and recommendations for which he or she will be responsible to the Government and the Oireachtas. The agency, which is accountable through its board to the Minister for Justice, to the Taoiseach through the Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality and, ultimately, to the Oireachtas, should include representatives from all relevant departments with appropriate authority to take the necessary decisions. Safe Ireland welcomes the creation of a duty on public sector bodies and others to co-operate with the agency under head 4. However, we also call strongly, as do our colleagues, for explicit and clear domestic violence expertise representation on the board. As it stands, the proposals are heavily focused on administrative and governance skill. Domestic, sexual and gender-based violence expertise must be well-represented on this board. Safe Ireland’s view is that the agency should propose a draft multiannual performance framework to the Minister for consideration and directly advise on the Minister’s annual statement of priorities, to which the Minister will have the power to respond and forward as she or he sees fit.

With regard to direct response to victims, a first priority for this agency should be the development of a national services development plan. The first task under that plan should be the development of a national strategic domestic violence accommodation plan which addresses deficits in short-term emergency accommodation for victims and develops longer term accommodation solutions for survivors. Such a plan will need a robust and fully co-designed approach which examines all aspects of survivor-victim response, both general and targeted, as they relate to safety, well-being, welfare and finance for all cohorts. Responding to domestic violence housing issues, specifically, requires a national, integrated perspective which is nonetheless locally flexible and supported.