Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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I thank the Minister for coming to the House and I appreciate it is a particularly busy time for him at present.

A number of weeks ago, I was contacted by a woman who is a victim of rape. She went through a traumatic trial and, to her horror, realised afterwards that all victim supports had dried up. She was effectively left to fend for herself and cope with the implications of the trial with no offer of counselling. Another woman, Shaneda Daly, who went public with her similar experience, stated:

You come out of the court and you’ve had your day in court, and he’s gone to prison, and you’re kind of high at the sentencing ... You’re living your life a little bit and then [that] bubble just bursts. There’s no one around you any more ... No one ever contacts you again ... any support [that was there is gone].

In some ways, these issues are just the tip of the iceberg. I have no doubt the Minister saw the report published last week by the Rape Crisis Network Ireland, which stated there was an "exponential increase" in demand for its services and it does not use that term lightly. It described how, over a period of time, there has been a doubling in the number of calls to its helpline, in addition to a 63% increase in appointments and, crucially, there is now a waiting list time in excess of a year for survivors or victims being assigned a counsellor. We know these issues existed pre-Covid and, therefore, have not sprung up during the last year. The annual report of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, published at the beginning of September, told a similar story. What is the Government doing to properly support and resource these rape crisis centres, which provide a crucial service, to ensure no survivor is left waiting for an unacceptable length of time?

I looked at the detail in the budget to see if the Government responded to the calls made by the various rape crisis centres throughout the country and I note the budget's expenditure report states the Government will maintain supports for domestic, sexual and gender based violence services. To be frank, that is not good enough. We need to see an increase in funding, not a maintenance of existing funds. There are two primary issues involved. There is a recruitment and retention crisis in regard to psychotherapists, who provide sexual assault and rape counselling services in rape crisis centres. The present situation is that such section 56 organisations have not been recognised as organisation that need to pay decent wages to retain their staff. Many of these services had to reduce salaries in line with public service wage agreements ten years ago. While there has been pay restoration and pay progress for many public sector workers, including section 39 organisations, the same cannot be said of section 56 organisations. Therefore, they have difficulty retaining staff. The second issue is the dramatic increase in demand for services, which is a good thing because people who suffered trauma in the past are, only now, willing to come forward. We need to respond to them in a timely manner.

In my remaining time, I will relay the story of Siobhan in Limerick. I am grateful to her for allowing me to share her story here today. She is a survivor of multiple sexual assaults and abuse in her younger years. Two and a half years ago, she decided to seek help. It took her a whole year to establish that she could access help from the Rape Crisis Centre, One in Four or HSE adult counselling services.It is telling that it took a whole year to even establish that for her. When she went to them and realised that she would be waiting a whole year she described how she felt retraumatised and the toll that this waiting has inflicted on her. Of course, this is a story that is told by many others.

We are looking to hear from the Minister what supports the Government is putting in place for services within the rape crisis centres. We cannot afford to have women, and men, waiting any longer than is absolutely necessary.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Senator for raising this very important matter. I am aware that this has received significant media attention recently, and that the statistics are very sobering. There has been a 100% increase in calls to helplines, a 63% increase in appointments and a 30% increase in the number of survivors attending centres. The Senator has outlined, beyond the statistics, the real-life impact of those waits on victims.

The response to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, DSGBV, is across government and is a multiagency issue, and policy is co-ordinated by the Department of Justice. I will outline what my Department is doing and then speak a little on what the Department of Justice is doing also.

Tusla has statutory responsibility under the Child and Family Agency Act for the care and protection of victims of DSGBV. Tusla funding is available for DSGBV services such as refuges, other domestic violence services and the rape crisis centres. This is €30 million for 2021, which includes €28 million of core spending and €2 million on Covid spending. In the budget yesterday I announced an additional €40 million for Tusla, which is very significant funding. There will be additional funding for DSGBV services within that. The breakdown of Tusla's funding for next year will not come out for a number of weeks. This is how it always happens. We do not tell Tusla exactly how to allocate its departmental allocation. That will be decided in the next weeks.

Tusla has advised that funding specific to sexual violence and rape crisis services has increased by 32% since 2016. It supports the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre to operate the national 24-7 free phone sexual violence helpline which is a round-the-clock accessible point of contact for anyone seeking support. Tusla provided an additional €275,000 to the two national 24-7 DSGBV helplines. This was an additional 50% on their annual core funding. That extra money came in 2021 to add capacity in the context of the Covid crisis.

The rape crisis centres have assured Tusla that their waiting lists are actively managed. People who are in acute crisis are prioritised. The contact remains open for anyone on a waiting list, and especially if there are concerns around safety. Tusla also supports general counselling in local communities via the family resource centres. There is an absolute acknowledgement that there is great demand for mental health professionals, and there are challenges in recruiting and retaining staff. Costs for support, supervision and professional development are included when the funding for sexual violence and rape crisis services is received from Tusla.

On the actions being taken by the Department of Justice, it has created an implementation plan entitled Supporting a Victim's Journey, for the review of protections for vulnerable witnesses in the investigation and prosecution of sexual offences. The Senator has outlined the struggles that survivors have had following a prosecution. A subgroup on the work of this plan commissioned an expert consultant to analyse and categorise the supports provided with grant funding made by the Department of Justice in 2021 under the victims of crime grant scheme. The consultant identified geographical areas and categories of victims, which represent gaps or unmet need in the current provision of these supports services within the criminal justice system. The Department of Justice is now in the process of contacting identified NGOs to arrange to distribute funding to provide additional services and extend geographical scope.

Another subgroup is focused on developing specialist training for legal professionals, counsellors and psychotherapists working in front-line services. Building on the mapping exercise, the subgroup will design a framework for the provision of a range of training and awareness-raising measures for those engaged with victims of sexual crime and vulnerable witnesses. Tusla is contributing to those actions also.

I do not know exactly the full package announced by the Department of Justice from yesterday, I believe it is holding a more detailed press conference today. I am aware the Department is putting in place a specific funding package for the victim's journey in implementing the Department's response to that.

Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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I thank the Minister. I welcome a lot of the detail that the Minister has provided. It is certainly positive that the gaps are being identified and that the subgroup focusing on developing specialist training is being put in place, and that there will be funding announced over the coming weeks under the DSGBV heading. What worries me slightly is the sentence "The rape crisis centres have assured Tusla that their waiting lists are actively managed". Of course they are actively managing their lists but the lists are too long. We need to see that detail now, notwithstanding everything the Minister has said that we will see the detail. We need to see it as soon as possible. We are coming into the winter period now and into what is considered a more normalisation of society. People are no longer willing to put up with excuses of Covid or anything else. We need to see that this funding is in place so the rape crisis centres can step up their response to victims as soon as possible.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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This Government has a strong track record on funding DSGBV services, including the increases that were provided in last year's budget to Tusla for funding the services, and with regard to the Department of Justice funding other supports, especially around the victims of domestic and sexual violence. That has been continued in this year's budget with a very substantial increase for Tusla. In my engagement with Tusla on the funding of existing domestic violence services, the funding of new services was also identified as a priority. The Senator will be aware that the accommodation review of refuges will be published shortly and we will be looking to support that in conjunction with my Department, the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in the context of the capital acquisitions scheme which is the capital funding. It is about bringing those elements together. That is what we are doing with the overall audit of the provision of DSGBV services. There is ongoing engagement with the sector in learning the positive lessons from Covid around how agencies, Departments and NGOs can work together.