Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. The programme for Government is very strong on this. It includes a number of relevant and key commitments, including the development of the third national strategy, which would place a priority on prevention and reduction and include a national preventative strategy. As I said, an immediate audit is to be conducted in terms of responsibility for this area across different Government agencies and Departments. The Government is committed to implementing a plan for a future refuge space and to investigate the provision of paid leave and social protection provision to victims of domestic violence and to learn from the experience of the coercive control model in the United Kingdom, including training for An Garda Síochána, legal professionals and Courts Service personnel to ensure there is clear understanding of the offence. The Government wants to legislate to introduce domestic homicide reviews, update the Sex Offenders Act 2001 to ensure convicted sex offenders are effectively managed and monitored, enact a harassment and harmful communications Bill, which the Minister has been speaking about, to outlaw image-based sexual abuse and to prevent abusive sharing of intimate images online and, crucially, to implement the findings of the O'Malley review of supports for vulnerable witnesses in sexual violence cases to support victims.

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