Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of the Bill is to establish the domestic, sexual and gender-based violence agency as a stand-alone statutory body under the Department of Justice with responsibility for tackling domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. The establishment of this agency is welcome and the Labour Party very much welcomes it. It is in line with the State's international treaty obligations on the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

Domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is a global problem and not just an Irish problem. At European level, in an anonymised international survey, 27% of women reported they had experienced some form of gender-based violence before the age of 15, while 26% reported experiencing some form of gender-based violence after the age of 15. We know abuse is systematically under-reported. People from groups who experience a high level of discrimination and exclusion are more likely to be victims and less able to access adequate help for it. These include ethnic minorities, migrants, Travellers, individuals with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Many governmental and non-governmental organisations are worried about an increase in the number of victims presenting to them and the system's inability to help people because they do not have the resources. For example, in December 2020, Safe Ireland reported it could not meet 808 requests for refuge due to a lack of space while Men's Aid reported it missed 630 calls to its helpline in 2021, mainly due to resource constraints. The Courts Service also noted delays of 16 weeks for domestic violence applications in some District Courts. In 2022, there was an increase of 8% in domestic abuse incidents, with almost 54,000 attended to by the Garda compared with just under 50,000 instances in 2021 and just over 44,500 in 2020.

There is no doubt the establishment of a dedicated agency by the Bill is a vital component in achieving the goal of zero tolerance in Irish society of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. There are eight listed functional areas of the agency, which we broadly support. There may be ways to enhance the Bill through amendments. A key point the Labour Party wants to make is that the success of this agency will absolutely depend on the budgetary and departmental resources allocated not only to the agency itself but in a range of areas. It would take too long to address each listed proposed area of responsibility and the knock-on resources needed but there are a few key areas we would like to highlight and discuss with the Minister of State today.

The first of these is providing direct support to victims, which includes refuges. Under the Bill, the agency is tasked with planning, co-ordinating and monitoring the development of refuge accommodation and providing support, including financial assistance, to service providers for the provision of relevant services and programmes. The extent to which the agency will be successful will depend on how much in resources is made available directly to the agency and through the agency to third parties. The danger is the agency will become a convenient scapegoat for departmental failure if the Government does not make the money available.

A review in 2022 by Tusla of the provision of accommodation for victims of domestic violence estimated that Ireland provides just under 30% of the higher standard of family places necessary. The running cost of the agency is expected to be approximately €3.4 million per year. However, the agency will be responsible for allocating budgets to non-governmental bodies that provide services such as refuges, rape crisis centres and helplines to those who have experienced, or are at risk of, domestic and gender-based violence. Close to €50 million was allocated in 2023 under the respective Votes of the Department of Justice and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for activities that will transfer to the agency. The biggest question for the Government is how much will be required to go from having 30% of places at the required standard to 100% of places. Is it another €100 million or €150 million? As sure as night follows day, without the additional resources the agency will be set up to fail.

Another area we see as being key to success is the agency's role in co-ordinating, overseeing and supporting the delivery of relevant Government strategies and plans. The success of the agency will be utterly dependent on how good the strategies are, how quickly the legal changes needed are implemented, and how much in resources is put behind the people who have to do the work. In March, the National Women's Council of Ireland, supported by and collaborating with the Department of Justice, released a very important report on the intersection of criminal justice private family law and public law childcare processes with regard to domestic and sexual violence. The National Women's Council of Ireland and the Department are to be commended on this excellent report that highlights the absolute necessity of having a victim-centred approach while, at the same time, ensuring the right to a fair legal process for those accused. At present we have a system that is incredibly hard on victims.

At the heart of the issue is that someone who is a victim can end up going through three different law processes in their case. I have heard too often women quoted as saying the court case was worse than the rape or the abuse. To quote the report, one act or a series of acts of domestic or sexual violence can cause the activation of two and sometimes three distinct legal processes. These are a criminal justice process, a private family law process and a public law childcare process. These involve the same victim or victims and the same alleged perpetrator. While there is a very real factual overlap between all of these processes, legally they work more or less in isolation despite the potential for real and beneficial liaison. Victims suffer as a result of this lack of co-ordination and collaboration between the various processes as vital information that could serve to secure just outcomes is sometimes lost in the gap between the three systems and never brought to the attention of the judge deciding on the particular issue to hand. We have a situation where a judge in one part of the process is completely unaware of what has happened or is happening in other parts of the process.

This can lead to terrible outcomes for victims and families.

As part of the national strategy there are a whole series of recommendations, some of which are excellent but, again, there are budgetary and resource implications for a whole range of Departments and not just the Department of Justice. For example, we need far better training of judges, gardaí and legal professionals. We need greater co-ordination between agencies and a far faster processing of cases. At the heart of the delays are a lack of investment and resources. We have serious underinvestment in the legal system. We have a crisis in the retention of criminal barristers that is putting court cases in this sphere at risk. As recently as May of this year, for example, a criminal trial for sexual assault had to be postponed because there was no senior barrister available to prosecute. Perhaps the biggest concern I have, however, is around the chronic lack of trained social workers and social care workers, which creates a very real impediment to effectively supporting victims of such cases.

The third point I will make concerns the structure of the Bill and the ongoing relationship with civil society organisations. I know the Minister has accepted some of the National Women's Council of Ireland's recommendations. There are a number of positive aspects to the Bill following on from those recommendations, such as the inclusion of collection management and assessment of statistical data in the functions of the agency and the fact the chairperson and members of the board will have experience and expertise in vital areas such as policy implementation, service delivery, advocacy and others with regard to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. However, the National Women's Council of Ireland and other civil society organisations have highlighted in their recommendations the importance of continuing with the co-design model of the third national strategy and the lack of clear mechanisms for collaboration with civil society organisations in the previous Bill. It is disappointing that civil society organisations are no longer mentioned in the Bill when the third national strategy acknowledged this collaboration as, “A key principle for the Department of Justice in the detailed design phase of the set up for the Agency will be to work with the specialist and community-based support organisations in a spirit of co-design to ensure that the new structure avoids the issues that limited effectiveness in the past.” It is to be hoped we can change this.

We in the Labour Party support this Bill. There may be some need to strengthen it and the agency, but at the core of the issue is that, like in so many areas, the establishment of this agency and implementation of all the policy and strategy changes recommended will be utterly futile without proper investment, not just in the agency itself, as I said, but also in the NGOs with the education and communication programmes and in the wider legal and social care system. We need to invest in the workers to deliver these services. We need to invest in gardaí, lawyers, social workers and researchers, NGO employees and everyone involved in the system to make sure this does not become another agency, as I said, that is set up to fail. The key to the success of this agency and this Bill lies not just in the Department of Justice but at the heart of the Government in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and the Department of Finance to see if they will put in the investment needed to make this a success. As I said, however, at this point, the Labour Party welcomes this Bill and will work to improve it as it goes through the Houses.

See this speech in context