Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy knows, the Government has made it clear that addressing domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, DSGBV, is a key priority for us all. This involves a number of Departments working collaboratively, in particular my own Department and that of the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee. In that Department, many positive steps have been taken in the fight against domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, including the launch of Zero Tolerance, the third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and the push to establish a new agency under the remit of the Department of Justice to tackle such forms of violence.

My Department established a comprehensive tri-party memorandum of understanding, MoU, with Tusla and the Department of Justice. This MoU and related documents outline the various engagements, at all levels up to and including ministerial and CEO level, between the three bodies to help us to ensure the continued operation of DSGBV services through Tusla during this transition. With significant support from my Department and Tusla, the Department of Justice has engaged in an ambitious programme aiming to: first, establish a statutory DSGBV agency by January 2024 that will be under the remit of the Department of Justice; second, manage the transition to the new agency of the DSGBV services that are currently provided by Tusla; and third, progress the recommendations of the interdepartmental group on the provision of accommodation for victims of DSGBV during the transitional period and in advance of the establishment of the proposed agency. My Department and its officials are very much engaged in this process.

In terms of funding, the recent budget had many competing priorities within my Department. I specifically secured an additional €37 million for Tusla and am currently preparing the performance statement for the Tusla business plan for 2023. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, secured an additional €7 million for Tusla that is specifically for DSGBV services. It is a very significant amount of investment and there is also the Zero Tolerance strategy setting out how we are going to move to this agency and also move to a wider range of measures to tackle DSGBV in the country.

See this speech in context