Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to be speaking on the Bill. I welcome its introduction to create a DSGBV agency. There is widespread support for this move. It is a positive step forward in providing services for the victims of this violence. Ireland has no real infrastructure to deliver co-ordinated DSGBV services, and what services do exist are grossly under-resourced and underfunded. The point has been made continuously in this Chamber and by Deputies today that the Istanbul Convention states clearly that we need 476 family places in refuges to cater for families. Currently Tusla only has 141 family places and plans to increase them to 280 in the next year or two. It is really not good enough. We need at least 400 to 476 family placements in place over the next two years during this third national strategy.

The State owes a deep debt to women in this country not just for historical institutional abuse but also for its failure to provide the protections and services needed for women facing violence. It is time to make this country safer for women and other victims of DSGBV. We have the institutional support now and we seem to have the political will from the Government. This is a chance that we cannot let pass us by, a chance to get this right. There is wide recognition that this is a positive step forward but there are concerns that the Bill as it stands does not give the agency the power, independence or flexibility to fix the problems we know exist in our DSGBV infrastructure and services. The agency needs this to identify what we do wrong and what we do right, and to provide, plan and grow policy and services around this. There are questions of the structure of the agency. Implementation and management must be ensured by strong oversight and co-ordination at central government level. This is an agency that will operate with a cross-section of agencies, Departments and Ministers. It needs central oversight and co-ordination to do this effectively. This is recognised in the Government's third national strategy and needs to be implemented. There is also a worry that the agency could become the ultimate destination for issues that other Departments find difficult to deal with themselves. This cannot be a last resort for problems of other Departments. It needs the power to compel proper and robust cross-Department co-ordination and engagement.

We have heard concerns about balance in the make-up of the board from front-line and sectoral groups, and during prelegislative scrutiny at the committee. The board is heavily stacked towards administrative power. We need strong administrative experience to ensure the agency's success, but we also need front-line and sectoral experience to make sure this agency is doing what it needs to do in terms of policy and services. There is an issue with who has the power to staff this agency. It has been raised by several groups that the CEO would have limited power over staffing and therefore limited power over how the agency runs. There cannot be a cut and paste of Tusla staff and services into this agency. This agency is being created to fix the problems in our existing provision of services and any move to staff this solely with Tusla transfers runs a large risk of repeating the original problems that made this agency necessary. Tusla is a child-centred agency. The new agency needs to centre victims of DSGBV. The Tusla model is not the correct structure for a truly national integrated and effective agency. If the agency and its CEO do not have control over staffing and recruitment, we will see the original problems in the provision of services repeated which this agency has been set up to solve.

I recognise that violence against women and other victims of DSGBV, including men, does not happen in a vacuum. The cost-of-living and housing crises have made it far more difficult for women escaping domestic violence. We need to ensure not only that the agency is properly funded and resourced but also that the State starts to make real strides in addressing the outlying factors such as housing, wages and the cost of living that make DSGBV more severe and harder to escape.

I will end my contribution by asking five questions on the issues I have raised. I would like the Minister of State to address them. Will ultimate responsibility for the agency rest in the Department of the Taoiseach as per the third national strategy? Will the agency have the power to compel robust cross-Department co-ordination and engagement? Will the Minister ensure there is a better balance between administrative power and front-line and sectoral experience on the board? How will the Minister ensure that the CEO has the power to shape the agency through independent staffing? How many positions in the agency will have already been filled by Tusla staff before the CEO is appointed? Where in the agency will those Tusla staff be placed?

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