Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the initiative by the Labour Party in tabling this Private Members’ motion on gender-based violence. While these issues have been discussed both in this House and outside of it over the past number of weeks, it is important that we are having a focused discussion. Indeed, we will be having a further discussion this afternoon as well more broadly.

The motion rightly commends the courage of Natasha O’Brien. I acknowledge her and the courage she has shown over the past few weeks. To reiterate, in our collective rejection of gender-based violence in any form, it is important we all work together and, to be honest, I think we have when it comes to this issue – certainly in the time I have been in this Department.

This Government is not opposing this motion. We are supporting and working with the Deputy. This motion covers a number of different aspects of a response to gender-based violence. I welcome the recognition of the significant policy changes that have taken place to address this zero tolerance strategy, which is our third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. It was developed with the support of colleagues here but also with the sector in general and victims in particular, as well as the new domestic, sexual and gender-based violence agency, which is up and running since the beginning of this year.

As the House knows, improving our response to these awful crimes and how we support victims in particular has been a priority since I became Minister for Justice. Again, I am grateful for the support of the Government and of many Members in this House in implementing changes that seek to improve, above all, the outcomes for victims. We have made improvements. I am conscious that we have much more work to do but we have made improvements since 2020, in particular the publication of Supporting a Victim’s Journey, and we have seen key recommendations from the O’Malley report implemented, such as the roll-out of the divisional protective service units across all of our divisions of An Garda Síochána. The Garda is making good progress in its training, response and engagement with victims. We have registered intermediaries who are now there to assist vulnerable witnesses giving their best evidence in court. We have a dedicated sexual offences unit within the office of the DPP. That was only established in recent years and it will bring added value to that office.

Key to delivering on the ambition of the third national strategy is zero tolerance of any kind of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and the attitudes that underpin so much of what we see. Cuan will and has become operational this year but is really now starting to get into the body of work that it has to do. We have allocated increased and unprecedented funding year on year for combating domestic, sexual and gender-based violence for supporting victims, which includes specialist organisations to provide court accompaniment, among other things. The budget now is at €59 million, which is an increase of more than €30 million in the past three years. I have every intention of making sure, come this year’s budget, we increase that further and that services are able to spend it and expand, and that capacity is grown year on year.

To build on that work, the launch of the zero tolerance strategy and the establishment of Cuan have been key markers along the way to making many of the necessary improvements. However, we know there is more to do. This is not a two-year, three-year or even a five-year project; this is a generational change and a shift in attitudes and behaviours that will take much work and sustained effort. I am absolutely confident that we can create that change if we continue to focus on this and keep prioritising it as an issue.

We have a better sense now of what is happening and what has always been happening. The Women’s Aid report, which was mentioned, the sexual violence survey from last year and many other reports from organisations show us the reality of what is happening and bring into stark picture the women – the victims behind so many of these crimes - and reiterate how much work we need to do to support victims and survivors.

We are aiming for zero tolerance. To get there, we have to change attitudes to change the behaviours that underpin it, and this requires a new approach to education – what constitutes it, the harm it causes and the responsibility each person has in society to eradicate it. That means a fundamental change in mindset, in particular when it comes to our schools. Education is a key part of the zero tolerance strategy. We have new curricula for our junior certificate cycle, the senior cycle is now developed and primary school, while making sure we do it in the most age-appropriate way, is the next stage.

To focus on some of the issue tabled in the motion, I am acutely conscious that coming forward to report sexual or domestic violence or both can be a deeply traumatic experience for victims. I have met many women who have gone through the system and said that going through the system is more traumatic than what happened to them. The worst thing any of us can hear when someone takes the step to come forward is that the next stages are even more traumatic. We need to do what we can to improve the system to prevent that from happening.

We are all very conscious of our role in making sure we do not intervene or do not overstep the mark. At the same time, we have a role in setting our legislation and making sure our criminal justice system is more victim-centred and deals effectively with victims and survivors. To that effect, I have introduced preliminary trial hearings, which seek to reduce the unnecessary delays in our courts. We have doubled the sentence for assault causing harm. This ensures there is a maximum sentence that the Judiciary can use. We have other structures in place, in particular the DPP, where there are appeals or where are appeals are necessary in certain instances.

Regarding making sure people can access the courts, it is about more availability. The 24 judges added to the system last year will help. There is a need for 20 more as part of the overall review and I intend to move on that as soon as possible, making sure they are spread equally across the country so that irrespective of where you are, you have access to the courts and the supports and services.

The motion calls for a review to the practice of suspended sentences and an increased urgency in the development of the sentencing guidelines. They are one in the same. The work of the Judicial Council is ongoing. While we have no direct role in the work it is doing, it is important it comes back with those recommendations as quickly as possible and that they are implemented as quickly as possible. The Judicial Council sentencing guidelines and information committee is progressing that work. The Attorney General has been engaging with the committee in that regard. Two offence areas were prioritised at the outset, namely, relationship-based violence in the District Court, as well as incidents related to serious car accidents. This will be provided to the board of the Judicial Council. The sentencing guidelines and information committee expects to be ready to do this shortly. As I said, we want to see this as quickly as possible. There will be detailed stakeholder consultation with organisations and experts as well to make sure this is right. The Judicial Council has also made available as a resource to judges a database containing every sentencing judgment delivered by the Court of Appeal and the sentencing handbook. In the interim, it about trying to make sure that information is available to our Judiciary.

On calls for reforms to the court system to better protect and support victims and survivors, we are leading an ambitious programme of family justice reform. I say that because the two are very much connected. One of the first conversations I had with a victim of a very serious violent assault involved the fact she was going through the family court system at the same time, where the perpetrator was trying to gain access and custody to their child. It was traumatic and no system was talking to each other. It is important that in the development of the family justice courts there is intersectionality, overlapping and that one side is talking to the other. There is also an understanding going through our family justice system that there are victims of domestic and sexual violence and coercive control, and that abuse can continue into the courts. I hope to be in a position in the autumn to be able to progress the Family Courts Bill, looking at specialist judges, looking at specialist courts and making sure that overlaps with the zero tolerance strategy.

As for character references, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2023 before this House that will be enacted before the summer recess focuses very much on the vouching of character references in sexual offences trials. This will apply to the list in the Schedule of sexual offences and is designed to protect the victims at that stage from further traumatisation during a sentencing hearing but also to ensure that if someone is willing to put his or her name forward to a character reference, he or she is willing to be cross-examined on this and to stand over exactly what he or she is saying when somebody has been found guilty.

Training for all involved in domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, particularly those working in the criminal justice system, is a key action of the preventative pillar in the zero tolerance strategy. Quite a number of actions have been progressed, particularly for An Garda Síochána, but work is ongoing with the legal professions - barristers and solicitors. There are really positive programmes of training for the Judiciary around victim support and bias and looking beyond that to ensure newer judges are consistently upskilling. As part of the Judicial Appointments Commission Act, there is a very clear requirement that any new judges would be required to have continuous professional development and training and that they would show that as they look to seek to improve their own position.

We now have a national perpetrator programme delivered by MOVE and MEND. It includes a suite of programmes for men who have been violent. This builds on the work of Choices, which is the national domestic violence perpetrator programme that has been in place since 2017. The Probation Service is extending this approach to include offenders who have been convicted and are under its supervision. We need to do more work there, in particular working with those who are perpetrators.

Regarding the call in the motion for the introduction of a victims commissioner, we have spoken about this previously. It has been examined previously. More work needs to be done, particularly given the development of Cuan, to see how we can add benefit to the support that is needed for victims. I believe that when a victim engages with the system, he or she should know what to expect, should be confident that he or she will be treated respectfully and sensitively and that their legally enforceable rights are there and know what supports are there at every step in the process. We have been working to make sure that this information can be provided through the victims' charter and awareness-raising campaigns. The Courts Service has developed an interactive suite in order that victims can know before they go into court.

A victims forum was established and is co-chaired by a representative of the sector with my Department. This is bringing together all the groups looking at what more we can do to support and focus on victims. The next meeting of the forum is next week. Work is being done on the Defence Forces regulation. Multi-annual funding is very much a priority. As the funding has increased, Cuan is introducing a standardised multi-annual funding structure. This will be actioned by quarter three of this year. This is about very much making sure that the services that are being provided across the country have sight of what they are doing and how they can provide that service and know that funding will be there for them. This is a key part of the work that is being done. I will come back on some of the other points if I can.

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