Written answers

Tuesday, 31 January 2006

Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform

Victims Commission

8:00 pm

Photo of Michael D HigginsMichael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 482: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform further to his reply to Question No. 489 of 2 November 2005, the reason given to the Commission for the Support of Victims of Crime for the refusal of funding by the helpline in question; if there has been any further contact with representatives of this helpline since; and his views towards the provision of such a service in the future. [3154/06]

Photo of Michael McDowellMichael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I established the Commission for the Support of Victims of Crime in March 2005, with a three-year remit, to devise a framework of supports for victims of crime into the future and to disburse funding for victim support measures. Its chairman is Mr. Jim McHugh who is a retired assistant commissioner of the Garda Síochána. Its other members are Ms Nora Owen who is a former Minister for Justice; Mr. Seán Lowry who is a former head of the probation and welfare service; Mr. Michael Whelan of Gemini Consulting; and Ms Marian Finucane who is a broadcaster. The commission, which is independent in its decision-making, examines each case on its merits. The Missing in Ireland support service made an application to the commission in April 2005 for €71,000 to staff and run a helpline for missing persons. The application was considered in detail by the commission at its meeting of 25 April 2005, when it decided to allocate €25,000. I have been advised that in the course of follow-up discussions, the support service rejected the offer and advised that it would accept the full amount sought or nothing. I understand there was no further contact between the commission and the support service until November 2005, when the commission suggested to the support service that it should contact the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which had provided funding for a helpline in 2002 and 2003, with a view to furthering its application for funding.

When the national missing persons helpline was established in October 2002, initial funding of €65,000, to include establishment costs, was provided by the Department. The helpline, which was operated and administered by Victim Support, received further funding of €45,000 in 2003, subject to the conditions that no funding beyond 2003 should be implied and that audited accounts should be provided for the Department on a calendar basis. No audited accounts have been received by the Department to date. At the end of 2003, the Department commissioned a review of the helpline from the department of social sciences of Dublin Institute of Technology, which found that the number of telephone calls which had been made to the helpline up to that point was approximately 100. While the Department is of the view that the service is valuable for the relatives of missing persons, perhaps it could be provided on a more cost-effective basis as an add-on to an existing service. Other than the request to the independent commission for funding, no request for funding has been made by Missing in Ireland support services to the Department. It is open to the support services to make a new application for funding to the Department, which will consider it on its merits.

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