James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Carroll MacNeill for raising the very important and serious issue of domestic violence and the funding granted by the Government to deal with this very serious matter.

As the Deputy is aware, earlier this year the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, launched Zero Tolerance, our third national strategy to combat domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. It is an ambitious five-year programme of reform and a whole-of-society plan of action. It builds on the substantial progress made through the implementation of the second national strategy and will further progress a number of important actions contained in Supporting a Victim's Journey. It was developed in partnership with the sector to ensure it is targeted, comprehensive and effective in achieving all of the goals set out and is built on the four pillars of the Istanbul Convention, namely, prevention, protection, prosecution and policy co-ordination.

A central element of the strategy is that everyone who needs a refuge space should be able to access one. As a start, this strategy commits to doubling the number of refuge places. This will be the fastest ever expansion of refuge spaces. We will also work to deliver additional safe home and step-down accommodation. When people are faced with the difficult choice to leave an abusive situation, the Minister wants them to know exactly where they can turn to for help. This will be done through the creation of clear integrated local pathways for adults and child victims and survivors to access information, services and supports.

Implementation of the third national strategy is a whole-of-government priority, backed up by a substantial funding commitment under budget 2023. Under budget 2023, the Minister was able to secure an extra €9 million for 2023, a 22% increase representing record funding for combating domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. This €9 million includes increased funding of €7 million for organisations funded by Tusla to address acute service demands in existing services throughout the country and for investment in new services as outlined in Zero Tolerance. This brings the total allocated to Tusla for funding domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services up to €37 million.

Separate from this, we have allocated over €6 million for measures to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence such as awareness raising campaign measures and funding the Choices programme for reforming perpetrators of domestic violence. Again, this represents a record level of funding in this area.

A further €5.8 million has been allocated to promote and assist the development of specific support services for victims of crime within the criminal justice system, which of course includes victims of domestic and sexual crime. These services provide important information and support such as emotional support, court accompaniment, accompaniment to Garda interviews and sexual assault treatment units and referral to other services. Tusla will be engaging with funded domestic, sexual and gender-based violence organisations on service and funding agreements for 2023 over the coming weeks. Specific funding to individual organisations will be agreed as part of that process and the Minister will be able to provide more information to the House once the details on core funding have been notified to the individual organisations.

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