Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I begin by paying tribute to Teach Tearmainn, which provides a vital service for victims of domestic abuse and violence in my county of Kildare. Alongside emotional and informative supports, it offers refuge to women escaping horrific and traumatising situations in their homes. The work it does is commendable. As unfortunate as it is, its services are crucial in County Kildare but we need more organisations like Teach Tearmainn and we need to support them.

It has been a long-standing call from the Labour Party to increase the number of women's refuges across Ireland. I was watching "Up Front with Katie Hannon" on Monday night and we were all dismayed to hear that there are at least nine counties in Ireland that still do not have one, which is totally and utterly unacceptable. What is happening is a postcode lottery for access to necessary supports for victims of domestic abuse.

Every month when the figures are released we are all devastated to see the number of people living in homelessness. In Ireland, we know from numerous studies that domestic violence is one of the leading causes, if not the leading cause, of homelessness for women. The most recent figure shows that 3,445 women are accessing emergency accommodation. How many of these women are there because they are escaping abuse and violence in their homes? Moreover, victims of domestic abuse who can access refuge accommodation effectively exist in a form of hidden homelessness that is not accounted for in the national figures. Women's refuges offer an incredible support to victims, and often to their children, but there simply is not enough capacity. We need at least one in every county and ideally we should have a lot more. To feel unsafe in your home, which should be your sanctuary, is a travesty. The lack of appropriate accommodation and refuges for survivors of abuse, as well as the housing crisis more generally, is limiting the options for a safe home for so many women.

All the while the indications are that domestic violence is on the rise. In 2022 there was an 8% increase in domestic abuse incidence. Almost 54,000 incidents were attended by gardaí last year, compared with around 50,000 in 2021 and just over 44,500 in the year before. There are delays of 16 weeks for domestic violence applications in some District Courts. Support services are overwhelmed and they have been for some time, as I have said previously in this House. In 2020, for example, Safe Ireland reported that it could not meet 808 requests for refuge due to the lack of available spaces. Men's Aid missed 630 calls to its helpline in 2021 due to resource constraints. Women's Aid's annual report for 2022 showed a 16% increase in contacts for its supports on the previous year, and the highest in its history for almost 50 years.

I am conscious that we are having this debate at a time when, in recent weeks, two separate incidents of violence against women have dominated the news. We continue to see an intolerable level of violence against women in Ireland, particularly in their homes. There is no tolerable level; it is a scourge that needs to be stamped out. The reality is that it happens and continues to happen and we need to give the greatest support possible to victims. It is my sincere hope and the hope of the Labour Party that this new agency will improve those supports and on that basis we are supporting this Bill. A key point that we in the Labour Party want to stress is that the success of this agency rests on the budgetary and departmental resources allocated to the agency and the range of offer of other related areas.

The Bill contains eight functional areas for the agency and I will not have time to go through all of those and the additional resources needed so I want to highlight a couple of those areas. Under the Bill, the agency will be tasked with planning, co-ordinating and monitoring the development of refuges and providing support to service providers, including financial support. Based on my previous remarks, this is a measure we welcome. I reiterate though that the extent to which the agency will be successful will largely depend on the resources available, not only directly to the agency, but also through the agency to third parties. The agency will be responsible for budget allocation for non-governmental support services, including refuges; rape crisis centres; and helplines. Close to €50 million was allocated by the Departments of Justice and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for related activities that will be transferring to this agency. A Tusla review carried out last year showed that only 30% of victim's accommodation is up to the highest standards. That allocation will need to increase to go from only 30% of spaces being up to standard to 100%, which should at least be the target. I would be concerned that this agency will simply become a scapegoat for the Department's failure to address the problem if it does not receive the required funding.

There is also the issue of strategising and planning. The agency will be responsible for co-ordinating, overseeing and supporting Government strategies. This is something the Government needs to get a handle on, particularly in how the legal system deals with cases involving domestic abuse and gender-based violence.In March, the National Women's Council of Ireland, in collaboration with the Department of Justice, produced a report that highlighted the absolute necessity for us to adopt a victim-centred approach that also ensures a fair legal process for those accused. Our present system is incredibly hard on victims.

On Monday's "Upfront with Katie Hannon" programme, which I mentioned previously, we were all moved and horrified by the contribution of Ms Sarah Grace, a solicitor and victim of gender-based violence herself. She clearly illustrated the ways in which our legal system can retraumatise and be traumatic in itself for victims. This needs to be dealt with urgently.

Victims can end up going through three different legal processes in their case, including a criminal justice process, a private family law process and, indeed, a public law childcare process. Legally, these work more or less in isolation from one another. The lack of co-ordination and co-operation between these processes means victims suffer.

There are situations where a judge in one part of the process does not have a clue what has happened or is happening in the other parts of the process. Gaps emerge through the various processes where vital information has the potential to be lost. Ultimately, this harms the potential for a just outcome to be secured.

I will finish shortly but I want to make a final point on the State's relationship with civil society organisations that deal with domestic and gender-based violence victims. It is welcome that the chairperson and members of the board of the agency will have experience in areas like policy implementation, service delivery and so on. However, it is disappointing that civil society organisations are not mentioned in the Bill. The National Women's Council of Ireland has highlighted the importance of continuing the collaborative model between the relevant Department and NGOs. The Bill lacks a clear mechanism for this to continue. Civil society organisations are at the front line in supporting victims and have invaluable specialist knowledge and expertise. I really hope that is not lost.

I will conclude by reiterating the Labour Party's support for the Bill. There are elements in it that we would like to see strengthened but, ultimately, this is a very well-intentioned Bill. The potential is there for a real game-changer in tackling the scourge of domestic and gender-based violence. I again appeal to Government to ensure that the agency, NGOs and broader care system are properly resourced and that a proper, well-thought-out strategy to deal with this issue is put in place. We want to see this Bill, and the new agency, succeed and we want it to be given the opportunity to do so.