Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I raise the inconsistency in delays for women seeking domestic violence orders as reported by Ciara Phelan in today's Irish Examiner. She has raised serious concerns that domestic violence victims and survivors are waiting up to four months in some cases for courts to hear safety applications. It is, in effect, a postcode lottery as to how long a woman will have to wait, ranging from 16 weeks, or four months, in Trim, County Meath, to 14 weeks in Tullamore, 12 weeks in Carlow and Nenagh and up to eight weeks in Bray, Clonmel and Ennis. This is a real concern, particularly as we are seeing such strong plans and ambitions at national level on tackling domestic and gender-based violence. The shortage of judges and the absence of consistency in approaches to these applications across different courts are really serious matters of concern. How will this be addressed? Are there plans to appoint more judges? How will these inconsistencies be solved?

Finally, on Garda recruitment, can a review be carried out on what needs to be addressed to improve the attractiveness with An Garda Síochána as we are seeing shortfalls in the numbers of gardaí recruited?

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