Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I fully acknowledge the need for urgency and am confident that the Government and both Houses see the need too, for all the reasons the Deputy has outlined. As a Government or as an Oireachtas, we do not establish new agencies very often. I hope the fact that we have taken a decision to establish a new agency assures the women of Ireland and the people of Ireland more broadly that we are taking this issue seriously and applying priority to it. The ambitious timeline of establishing the agency by next January will be met. I am very grateful to the justice committee for its work on pre-legislative scrutiny. I look forward to the co-operation of everyone in this House and the Upper House to ensure that is the case.

We have also commissioned the Central Statistics Office, CSO, to undertake a wide-scale public survey on the prevalence of sexual violence in Ireland. The results of this, due for publication tomorrow, will provide us with an important baseline, for which we have looked for many years, going forward, for developing policy, supports and services, and for evaluating the impact of our work. I assure the Deputy that this remains a major priority. There is no one thing that we can do. It is about doing many things. That is why the detailed implementation plan, including the 144 actions, is key.

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