Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Senator McGreehan.

I welcome the Minister back to the House. I compliment her and the Government on the swift action being taken in respect of the images mentioned by previous speakers. It is good to see such swift action being taken.Domestic violence comes into sharp focus particularly at this time of the year, at Christmas time, when families spend more time together and there is increased consumption of alcohol within the household. In the context of getting an indication of the extent of the problem here, I would like to compliment work done by Safe Ireland, the national domestic violence association, which works with 39 front-line services throughout the length and breadth of the country. We have a group, Tearmann, in my constituency of Monaghan-Cavan which doses excellent work and I compliment the staff of that organisation on their superb work.

A body of work carried out by Safe Ireland shone a light on the extent of this problem, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. It traced the prevalence of domestic violence during the first six months of the Covid pandemic from March onwards. The results were very disappointing. It was heartbreaking to see the extent of the problem during that particular time. I will briefly share with the Minister some of the information from Safe Ireland's report. During the first six-month period, 3,450 women and 589 children contacted a domestic violence service for the very first time. Some 33,944 telephone calls were answered during that time. That is an average of 184 per day. Sometimes we forget that behind all those figures there are families in deep distress. I can only imagine the pain, hurt and the mental anguish they are going through to have the courage to pick up the phone. It is important also to remember the ones who have yet to be able to pick up the phone to report that violence for fear of what the repercussions might be. I would like to encourage anyone who finds themselves in that situation to pick up the phone as, I am sure, would everybody in this House. As the Minister outlined, thankfully, there is plenty of help available for people.

The other few statistics I noted were that, on average, 191 women and 288 children are living in domestic violence accommodation every single month. More alarmingly, 1,351 requests for accommodation were not forthcoming because of the fact there was no safe space for those people to be housed. That clearly shows that while we are doing great work, much more needs to be done. In my constituency of Monaghan-Cavan we await a refuge centre for the people of those counties. The Minister might comment on that in her response.

Another area Safe Ireland highlighted was the fact that more funding is coming, which is welcome, but it is coming across a few Departments. It requested that an overall figure be given to it in order that these groups could plan for the years ahead. I compliment the Minister on her work to date. I welcome the initiatives introduced by the Government. Unfortunately, they will be all needed and probably more along with them.