David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for the broad support for the Bill this evening. Deputy Ó Laoghaire said this is one of the issues on which we can all agree. When I was Chairman of the justice committee, we did a lot of work in this area and there was broad support and constructive debate on this important issue. Pending the passage of Second Stage this evening, the Chairman of the Select Committee on Justice and Equality, Deputy Ó Caoláin, and his colleagues have agreed provisionally to schedule Committee Stage for next week. I am grateful to them for this.

We can agree on this. Eradicating the problems in our society is a shared goal for all Members. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, and the former Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, indicated in this House that Ireland would ratify the Istanbul Convention at the earliest opportunity. An action plan was put in place. Various steps and a range of legislative measures required for ratification have been taken. In many ways, achieving ratification of the convention seems like the final hurdle. In other ways, it is only the beginning.

Once ratification is completed, Ireland joins a monitoring mechanism of independent experts called GREVIO, which will monitor the effective implementation of the convention. It will evaluate implementation in Ireland, determining whether legislation is effective. It will also publish reports on all efforts being made in Ireland to make a difference in regard to violence against women and, as Deputy O'Callaghan stated, men. The convention provides that each government must submit the GREVIO report to the national parliament. Therefore, all such reports on implementation in Ireland will be submitted to the Oireachtas.

As stated, 45 countries have signed the convention so far and 33 have ratified it. Very soon, Ireland will bring the number of ratifications to 34, as Deputy O'Loughlin stated. This Bill was published only in November 2018. It completed its passage in the Seanad two weeks ago and tonight it is commencing its passage through this House. The Minister, Deputy Flanagan, is on the record as saying he would like it enacted by 8 March, International Women's Day. Maybe colleagues could all agree on this. We are on course to achieve that deadline.

Let me turn to some of the issues colleagues have raised. A number of points were made on delays regarding the Bill. It has not really been delayed. The treaty was signed in 2011 and entered into force in 2014. Ireland signed up to the convention in 2015. Since then, a number of actions have been taken by the Government on the convention. The Domestic Violence Act 2018 was passed by the Houses, as were the Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Act 2017 and the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017. The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2018 is also one of the measures. Therefore, there has been much legislation and work done in order to reach this point. The reason is that Ireland is a dualist state. We ratify international conventions only when we have transposed their various requirements into domestic law. When we ratify, we have the job done. A lot of work is done before that point. Over the past three years, a number of Bills, already referred to, have been enacted to get to this point. This is the final piece and it will allow for ratification as early as possible this year. Much work was done to get to this point. It had to be done; otherwise we could not have ratified the convention. I hope that is accepted by colleagues.

Deputy O'Callaghan referred to the seriousness of murder and manslaughter. Ireland already claims jurisdiction for murder and manslaughter offences committed by Irish citizens anywhere in the world. This is provided for in section 9 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. We are now claiming jurisdiction where a person normally resident in Ireland commits murder or manslaughter abroad. It would be incongruous if Ireland were to claim jurisdiction where murder or manslaughter is committed by an Irish citizen in any country but restrict jurisdiction only to convention states where it involves an Irish resident.

We are not extending jurisdiction to offences committed against Irish residents abroad. This issue was considered fully with the legal advisers. Article 42 to the Istanbul Convention requires a state to endeavour to take necessary legislative measures to establish jurisdiction over any offence established in accordance with the convention where the offence is committed against one of its nationals or a person who has his or her habitual residency in its territory. In the national action plan, first agreed by the Government, it was decided that Ireland would legislate for jurisdiction where the offence is committed by or against Irish citizens or residents abroad. The issue has been further considered by my Department officials and advice has been received from the Office of the Attorney General. Heretofore, Ireland has normally legislated for extraterritoriality according to the active personality principle, which allows a state to exercise jurisdiction over its own nationals who commit offences abroad. Having considered the issue fully, it is now apparent that extending jurisdiction to Irish citizens abroad would be a huge shift in Ireland's approach to this and would require detailed and lengthy deliberations as to how it would work. We would have to claim jurisdiction to prosecute in this country a foreign national for committing a relevant offence in his or her own country against an Irish citizen in residence. There are major issues to be considered concerning extradition to Ireland and mutual legal assistance issues around the transfer of evidence. At this time, the Minister has decided it would be best to limit jurisdiction to Irish perpetrators abroad. The Government agreed to his proposals to do so.

The Government has also agreed that this decision can be reviewed in the years ahead.

To further consider Irish victims now would undoubtedly delay ratification of the convention and the Minister would prefer to move ahead at this point. Once ratification has been completed, Ireland will become part of the Istanbul Convention peer evaluation process, as I said earlier, known as GREVIO. This will be an important learning tool for Ireland and it will put us in a stronger position to know how this issue could be addressed in the future.

Deputy Sherlock asked about a risk assessment matrix and 24-hour helplines and so on. That is to do with the domestic violence legislation and not this particular item but I will try to get responses to the Deputy on those matters.

Deputy O'Loughlin also spoke about the Domestic Violence Act. All the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act were fully commenced on 1 January. Prior to commencement, the key agencies, namely, the Courts Service, the Director of Public Prosecutions and An Garda Síochána, worked hard to put in place the necessary measures, including the preparation of guidance documents and appropriate training, to ensure the successful implementation of the legislation. It is also intended to establish divisional protective services units in each Garda division by the end of this year. These are specialised units which improve services to victims, improve the investigation of incidents of sexual and domestic violence and will improve the identification and management of risk in cases of domestic and sexual violence.

Deputy Sherlock raised an interesting point in asking if Brexit will affect the legislation. It is our understanding that it will not. The UK also plans to ratify the Istanbul Convention although I understand it is a little behind Ireland at this time in terms of ratification. As has been said by Deputies Sherlock and Pringle, this is a Council of Europe convention, not an EU convention, and the UK is not leaving the Council of Europe. Both Deputies strongly made that point.

Deputy O'Callaghan referred to other actions the Government is taking and I mentioned the Garda National Protective Services Bureau which has been established and is led by a chief superintendent. A nationwide network of Garda victim support offices with dedicated staff in each of the 28 Garda divisions has also been established. The Garda National Protective Services Bureau is tasked with improving services to victims, improving the investigation of incidents of sexual and domestic violence and identifying and managing risk.

There is also a domestic homicide review. An Garda Síochána's domestic violence policy intervention unit is currently working with the Garda Síochána Analysis Service in analysing domestic related homicides. Such homicides are examined and any lessons learned are feeding into policy and investigations in this area.

The Minister brought a memorandum to Government on 20 November and the Cabinet approved the undertaking of a national survey, as Deputy Ó Laoghaire pointed out, on the prevalence of sexual violence to be repeated every decade by the Central Statistics Office, CSO, and the publication of the report of the scoping group. The survey will be large scale, complex and extremely sensitive. A completed sample of 5,000 adults, on a wide range of intimate questions on abuse in adult life and in childhood is envisaged. My colleagues can imagine how challenging that will be.

Once the first full national survey is complete, it is envisaged that work will then begin on exploring the experiences of sexual violence abuse by specified vulnerable minority cohorts, for instance the LGBTI+ community, members of the Traveller community, migrant populations and people with disabilities. A memorandum of understanding between the Department of Justice and Equality and the CSO to proceed with this project is currently in preparation.

On the review of the investigation and prosecution of sexual offences, the Minister for Justice and Equality published terms of reference for the review of the investigation and prosecution of sexual offences on 7 September. The Minister also announced that Mr. Tom O'Malley, BL, will chair the working group tasked with undertaking it.

Cosc is currently supporting and overseeing the implementation of a uniform national domestic violence intervention programme under the second national strategy for the prevention of domestic sexual and gender-based violence for the period 2016 to 2021. The roll-out of this programme, entitled the Choices programme, began in 2017.

Funding and resources have been mentioned on a few occasions. Under the Child and Family Agency Act 2013, Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, has statutory responsibility for the care and protection of victims of domestic, sexual or gender-based violence. As such, Tusla is the primary funder of services. In 2018, Tusla allocated funding of €23.8 million to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services, an increase of €3.4 million or 17% over 2015. Following budget 2019, additional funding of €1.5 million will be allocated to these services in 2019.

Of the €1.72 million allocated to victims of crime in 2018, grants totalling €686,000 were awarded to 34 domestic violence organisations for support and assistance and to provide support and court accompaniment to victims of crime. Of the €2.205 million non-pay budget for Cosc, it allocated €950,000 for the national awareness programme, "What would you do?". In 2018, the campaign messaging moved from an objective of raising awareness to one of education. Additionally, €500,000 from the Dormant Accounts Fund, which has been provided under the dormant accounts plan for 2016 and 2017 is being used to provide key additional localisation to the national campaign over its lifetime.

Cosc also allocated €817,000 for the delivery of the uniform national domestic abuse intervention programme entitled the Choices programme. The primary aim of the programme is, while maintaining its support for the safety and well-being of women and children as paramount, to support and challenge men who are engaged in domestic violence to change their abusive behaviours and attitudes towards their partners.

Cosc also provided funding of €22,000 in 2018 to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre for a sexual violence awareness and prevention programme for young people. This funding went towards the running of five four-day body right programme training events in 2018 for staff from Youthreach and other alternative educational settings.

My colleagues can see that there is a lot going on in this hugely important area. One can never really do enough in this challenging area and I was taken again with what Deputy O'Callaghan said earlier, and he said it previously at a different debate on a similar issue, that we are changing in our society. We have much more access to material on the Internet which is, really and truly, not suitable for young people at all and which gives images which are completely wrong and at variance with reality. We have seen more and more reports of the amount of time people spend on screens to the detriment of exercise and other more healthy activities. That is something all of us must reflect on and, in particular, parents will need to reflect on that to ensure that is the case.

I thank my colleagues here for their support this evening and for a constructive debate. This is a sensitive and important area. I look forward to the committee debate hopefully next week, if we agree to progress the Bill this evening, as I anticipate we will. I look forward to ratifying this convention by International Women's Day, as I outlined earlier.

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