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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 17 to 28, inclusive, together.

The Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality oversees implementation of programme for Government commitments in the areas of social policy including sport, equality, arts and culture as well as children and youth affairs, and public services including matters relating to justice, policing reform and community safety. The Cabinet committee last met on 16 May and will meet again in the coming weeks.

Recent public policy advancements in the area of social affairs includes publication of the third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. The central aim of this strategy is to bring about zero tolerance towards domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in Irish society, as well as the attitudes and assumptions that underpin it.

Another important goal of the strategy is to improve the co-ordination and delivery of services for those affected by these forms of violence. In this regard, a new statutory domestic, sexual and bender-based violence agency with political oversight of the strategy will be established, situated within the Cabinet committee on social affairs and equality, which I chair.

In addition, a high-level oversight board, chaired by the Secretaries General to the Departments of the Taoiseach and Justice, will be established to ensure that actions are being implemented successfully and within the specified timelines. The high-level oversight board is expected to hold its first meeting in the near future.

In addition to meetings of the Cabinet committee, I have regular engagements with Ministers, both at Cabinet and individually, to discuss priority issues relating to their Departments.

A number of meetings have also been held between my officials and officials from relevant Departments on a range of social policy issues since the establishment of the Cabinet committee in July 2020. That would have involved a number of meetings with a number of partnership groups in different parts of the city, including Ballyfermot, Ballymun and the north-east inner city. I am anxious to try to develop a new policy framework to govern how we deal with communities that require significant multidisciplinary supports on a partnership basis into the future.

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