Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that information and I will work with the Minister every step of the way. We had, however, a previous strategy. When the review of it was done and published in July 2021, it told us that the audit around DSGBV found a lack of effective oversight of implementation of the previous national strategy, a fragmented approach and a lack of action on decades of recommendations. On top of that, the review by Tusla was two years late. It was promised and it was still not done two years later. The third national strategy was supposed to have been published by the end of 2021 and it was not. It took another six months after that. Every step of the way, I refer to the voices raised in this regard in this Dáil, based on communications from the organisations on the ground. I mention, for example, Domestic Violence Response, DRV, in Oughterard. I received an email from the organisation today. It is struggling on the ground in trying to deal with the number of people and specifically, women coming in. I can stand here and criticise, which is not really what I want to do. This situation is simply intolerable and unacceptable. We need action. What we are promising in terms of refuges is the most basic step and still it is less than 50% of what the Istanbul Convention commits us to.

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