Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. We cannot leave anything to chance when it comes to supporting people who are subjected to DSGBV, tackling this serious problem and reducing its prevalence. There has been a need for some time for the creation of a statutory agency dedicated to tackling and reducing these crimes and supporting victims and survivors. The pooling of resources and dedicated expertise has my full support. However, for such an agency to be effective, it cannot work in isolation and must be able to carry out its important work with no undue obstacles to inter-agency co-operation and a whole-of-government approach where needed. We cannot leave it to chance that potential co-operation might be hampered in any instance because the communication pathway has not been specifically identified and agreed. This issue has been pointed out in submissions from NGOs, which have gone as far as to call for a clause to be included in the Bill that would grant the new agency the powers to compel other agencies to engage and work with it for the purposes of fulfilling its remit. Otherwise, we could see an unfortunate situation whereby vital actions are not taken or key information is not acquired when it should be. The same applies when engaging with the NGOs. They have a unique insight and specific knowledge of the issues and they have the trust of those who engage with them. Their input into, and continued engagement with, the agency, and vice versa, must be assured. That should go without saying.

As I have noted, nothing can be left to chance here. For this agency to be effective, we need certainty that it will not spend its time having to chase funding. We heard from both the National Women's Council of Ireland, NWCI, and the Department of Justice that there is a particular issue with victims of these types of crimes being respected and believed. The NWCI cited interviews it did with victims and the court support personnel who accompanied them. Many victims found the unfamiliar court process to be frightening and intimidating. It was noted that the workload in this area falls generally to NGOs and that the support system is straining under the volume of help that is needed. The NWCI recommended that the State provide properly resourced needs-based support teams to help in these instances. This is just one example of where we need full commitment from the Government to support the agency in its work and support the victims in the process into which they are drawn.

The postcode lottery that determines waiting times in our courts must be addressed. Serious efforts are needed to address the shortages in the courts system that result in waiting times for full hearings of barring order applications varying from four weeks to up to 12 weeks, depending on which court one is dealing with, including in my county of Tipperary.

See this speech in context