Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Okay. Deputy Bacik asked about the interdepartmental group on the referendum, which met for the first time in the last few days. I have the report and the minutes from the meeting on my desk. Like many things on my desk, I have not had a chance to look at them just yet but I hope to do so in the next few days. It is my expectation that the group will follow, or at least seek to follow, the recommendations of the joint committee and that that will be the basis for what we decide to do. That would involve looking at the three areas of an equality amendment, the definition of family in our Constitution and how we properly recognise care in our Constitution. Whether it will be one referendum or two, or possibly three, has not been figured out yet. Crucially, we need to figure out the correct wording, how it might be interpreted by the courts and what enabling legislation might be required to realise that constitutional change. While it is not always the case with referendums, we would often publish the enabling legislation that would become possible because of the change to the Constitution. It is important to get referendums right. We want these to pass and we want to make sure we are able to answer any questions that arise or rebut any extraneous issues that are thrown into the mix, which so often happens in referendums.

With regard to childcare and early years education, the Government has four priorities. The first is to reduce the cost. We reduced the cost this year and I hope, public finances permitting, that we will be able to reduce the cost for parents again next year. Second, increasing capacity is a real challenge. There are lots of cases of parents in my constituency who are struggling to get childcare places at all, particularly for babies. The third priority is quality. We are raising quality all the time because this is not just childcare; it is also early years education. Fourth is improving the terms and conditions and pay of the staff who work in the sector and making sure it is an attractive career choice.

It would be a good idea to do a pilot of a publicly-provided childcare and early years system. Many people coming from an ideological point of view will always take the view that a publicly-provided service must be better than a privately-provided service. I would point to our health service and how well our GP and pharmacy services work even though they are privately provided. It is not always the case that something that is publicly provided is better than something that is privately provided and our health service is an example of that. It would be worth doing the pilot to see how it measures up in terms of cost, quality, staffing and other issues.

I do not think a week passes where Deputy Murnane O'Connor does not raise issues pertaining to Carlow with me. She is certainly looking out for her county, as all Deputies do - some more than others. We have a multi-annual programme under way in relation to women's refuges. There are new places every year and around 90 will be provided this year. We need a better geographic spread, particularly identifying regions where there is no refuge. I am not sure when we will get to the point of having one in every county but that would certainly be desirable. I do not have an update on Carlow yet but I can certainly ask the Minister for Justice, Deputy Harris, or the Minister without Portfolio, Deputy McEntee, to provide that to the Deputy.

Regarding the wider issues that were raised about domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, DSGBV, last June the Government launched a new strategy to combat domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. It is an ambitious five-year programme of reform aimed at achieving a society that does not accept DSGBV or the attitudes that underpin it. It is a €363 million strategy and the accompanying implementation plan contains 144 detailed actions for implementation. Implementation will be underpinned by strong political oversight at central government level via the Cabinet committee on social affairs and public services. The strategy provides for the establishment of a statutory DSGBV agency under the aegis of the Department of Justice, which will drive this work and bring the expertise and focus needed. Education and awareness-raising are also part of the Government's fight against sexual and gender-based violence and we are working on national campaigns to raise awareness, including on the meaning of consent. Some of the main actions under the strategy include doubling the number of refuge spaces available in Ireland, which I mentioned earlier, national sexual violence and domestic violence prevalence studies to be conducted at five-year intervals, new legislation introducing a specific offence of non-fatal strangulation and a specific offence of stalking, which was referred to by Deputy Smith. I am aware of the report she mentioned and have seen the media coverage. I have not had a chance to read it yet but there will be a Government response to it in early course, most likely coming from the Minister for Justice.

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