Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

On behalf of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, I thank Senator Keaveney for raising this important issue. Domestic violence is a problem throughout the country and it is important to talk about it at all times, but particularly during the international 16 days of action opposing violence against women.

All of us, and particularly the Government, take the problem of domestic violence very seriously. It has serious consequences for the victims, the majority of whom are women. In addition, children always suffer in those situations. Due to its hidden nature, and I was glad to hear Senator Keaveney mention that people are using services, the majority of victims are reluctant to report it, so it is a crime which can be difficult to tackle. It is recognised that State and non-governmental organisations are doing good work in addressing the problem and in meeting the needs of victims. That work is appreciated as it delivers vital services to domestic violence victims. It involves major organisations and local groups, as Senator Keaveney said. Some of the family resource centres offer facilities, support and counselling for victims of domestic abuse.

However, more work needs to be done, particularly in co-ordinating the work of the many organisations concerned. The organisations include Departments, State offices and agencies as well as non-governmental organisations at national and local level which deal with victims of domestic violence. Recognition of the need for co-ordination led to the establishment in June 2007 of Cosc, the national office for the prevention of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. Cosc is an executive office within the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform which is dedicated to ensuring a whole-of-Government response to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence against women and men, including older people living in the community.

Cosc's main priority is the preparation of a national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. The wide range of State and non-governmental organisations dealing with such violence is assisting with the development of the national strategy. Those organisations responded to the call for submissions on the strategy and participated in subsequent rounds of consultations. Work on preparation of the strategy is well advanced and the strategy is expected to be submitted to Government early in 2010. The strategy will set out a cohesive plan to further develop actions to prevent and respond to the violence concerned in coming years.

It is difficult to clarify the level of domestic violence. The hidden nature of the crime and the reluctance to report it make it difficult to obtain prevalence data. We have, however, empirical data on the prevalence of the problem in the National Study of Domestic Abuse published by the National Crime Council in 2005. According to the study 15% of women and 6% of men have experienced severely abusive behaviour from their partner at some stage or on some occasion over the course of their lifetime. The percentage is much higher if minor incidents are taken into account. The study found that 29% of women and 26% of men suffer domestic abuse at some stage in their lifetime where severe abuse and minor incidents are combined. In other words almost a third of all women and a quarter of all men experience some form of domestic violence at some stage. This underlines the seriousness of the problem and the magnitude of the task in tackling the problem.

Increasing knowledge about the problem is key to making progress on dealing with it. In 2008, Cosc carried out a survey of attitudes of the Irish public to domestic abuse and it came up with some interesting findings. One of the main outcomes is that a large majority of the Irish population exhibit high levels of awareness of the problem of domestic abuse. People perceive domestic abuse to be a common and increasing problem. They have a broad understanding of what constitutes domestic abuse and they regard it as unacceptable. I share the concerns Senator Keaveney raised regarding comments about alcohol. Alcohol is never an excuse for a perpetrator and it is certainly never a justification for a victim.

These are broadly positive findings and in terms of responding to domestic abuse the study showed that people feel responsible and are willing to intervene if they witness domestic abuse. However, if the victim is somebody outside the family circle, such as a neighbour they do not know well, people are reluctant to become involved. An understandable concern or fear of making things even worse is the main reason given for not becoming involved. The survey provides a baseline for understanding public attitudes to domestic abuse in Ireland. Cosc is using this survey to inform work being undertaken to improve the system of prevention and response to domestic violence. This includes the development of accessible information for members of the public, to assist them in understanding and being prepared to take appropriate action to counter these crimes. A practical example of such information is the details of local and national support services on Cosc's website at www.cosc.ie.

The Government is committed to tackling the problem of domestic violence. That commitment is reflected in the priority being given to the preparation of the national strategy. It is expected that the strategy, once finalised, will drive greater progress in dealing with this serious problem.