Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the last point, which was raised by a number of Deputies, the offence of coercive control was introduced into our criminal law code fairly recently. While there has been just one conviction for this offence, there are a number of ongoing cases, particulars of which have been reported in the national media. During the course of the Covid emergency, the Garda informed me that its members have recorded a total of 62 incidents of coercive control. I would expect that in the normal course of the criminal law investigation process, many of those incidents will result in charges and will be the subject of court proceedings and perhaps further convictions. I acknowledge the importance of specific training in this regard and I echo what I said earlier in terms of that training being made available to gardaí in the context of the expansion of the divisional protective services units.

I agree with Deputy O'Gorman's comments about the inter-agency plan. I accept, as Minister for Justice and Equality, that perhaps the lead Department in this area should continue to be my Department, with the active support and collaboration of a number of other Departments, particularly the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. As a former Minister in the latter Department, I would be very disappointed if it were in any way subject to a downgrade in the context of the current programme for Government talks and developments. The Deputy quite rightly notes that, once the new Government takes office, there will be an audit of the agencies involved and the role and function of those agencies. I believe this will affect the need to accelerate and progress the whole-of-government approach. The conduct of the audit of statutory responsibilities in the area should result in a greater level of collaboration, which will be key.

I am aware of the proposed organisational reform of Tusla, as referred to by the Deputy. The matter is not within my remit but it is important that all associated Departments would be very much involved in any reforms or changes in this regard in order to address fully a whole-of-government response to domestic abuse and sexual violence. There was reference earlier to the possibility of having a designated Minister of State in this area. I acknowledge the work of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, in this area and his work on the national strategies, particulars of which have been mentioned in the course of this debate.

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