Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I am aware that she is particularly interested in it.

The Government is committed to tackling domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in all its forms and to supporting victims of this heinous crime. My Department provides funding to support the work of An Garda Síochána to combat such violence. It also provides funding to promote and assist the development of specific support services for victims of crime within the criminal justice system, which includes victims of domestic and sexual crime.

The commitment of the Government to combatting domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and supporting victims is reflected in the funding allocated under budget 2022, with a total of €13 million allocated to my Department for this. This represents an increased allocation of €5.35 million and will enable us to roll out specific awareness-raising and training programmes to combat domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.

It will also allow us to provide additional supports to NGOs and specific domestic violence intervention programmes and it will support several front-line activities. As part of this, an additional €1.1 million will be used to put in place a legal advice and legal aid service in court for victims of sexual violence and €1 million is being provided to the Garda Vote to refurbish and upgrade the divisional protective service units, DPSUs, which will allow us to better support and protect vulnerable victims.

The Deputy will be aware that my Department is leading the development across government of the third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. This plan will outline how the Government will radically improve services and supports for victims and will be the most ambitious plan to date. My Department is also implementing Supporting a Victim’s Journey, our plan to help victims and vulnerable witnesses in sexual violence cases, which was published by the Minister, Deputy McEntee, last year. It will reform the criminal justice system.

See this speech in context