David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 196: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the consultants that have been engaged by his Department to undertake an evaluation of the pilot project on domestic violence intervention in the Bray and Dún Laoghaire areas over a three year period from 2003 to 2005; if this evaluation has been completed; the action he has taken or intends to take as a result of the evaluation; the funding his Department has provided to the National Domestic Violence Intervention Agency to date; the way this funding was used; his further plans in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40318/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The contract for the evaluation of the pilot project referred to by the Deputy was awarded to a firm of consultants, Farrell Grant Sparks (FGS), at the end of 2005 and the consultants completed their work earlier this year.

My Department provided grant assistance to the National Domestic Violence Intervention Agency (NDVIA), a registered charity and non-governmental organisation, initially for a period of one year in 2003 and gave the group two further extensions over the period 2004 to 2005 inclusive, as the work proposed by the NDVIA under the pilot initiative had not been completed.

The project aimed to develop closer co-ordination in the delivery of services on domestic violence, on a pilot basis in the Dún Laoghaire and Bray areas. The NDVIA pursued work separately with the Garda; the Courts Service; the Probation and Welfare Service; and the Health Services Executive local services in relation to appropriate responses and methodologies for supporting the victims of domestic violence and also actively promoted the co-ordination of the responses among all the relevant services in the pilot area.

The FGS evaluation reported that some useful work was undertaken by the NDVIA in the pilot programme, although, despite the extensions, the full programme of work had not been completed by the end of the pilot period.

My Department reviewed the Evaluator's report and agreed to provide additional funding to the NDVIA during 2006, so that the NDVIA could complete the unfinished tasks in the pilot project and write up all the processes involved, so that they might be considered for implementation in other areas if the final outcomes are deemed appropriate. The NDVIA has now undertaken to complete the pilot project by the end of January, 2007.

Overall grant funding of €530,024 has been provided to the NDVIA to date. When this pilot project is fully completed, my Department will be in a position to further consider the final outcomes of the project and the findings of the FGS evaluation and to make informed decisions on its role in this area in the future.