Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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84. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the projected cost of implementation of the European Union victims directive. [18423/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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My Department set up a Victim Services Group of the Criminal Justice Strategic Committee in June, 2015 to coordinate implementation of the Victims Directive. The organisations represented on the group are An Garda Síochána, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, the Courts Service, the Legal Aid Board, the Probation Service, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Irish Prison Service, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal, the Central Mental Hospital, and the Criminal Law Reform Division, Victims of Crime Office and Crime Division of my Department.

The implementation of the Victims Directive is being delivered within current resource allocations. To disaggregate the cost of the Directive actions to date from overall budgets in the wide range of Departments and bodies involved would take a disproportionate amount of time. Additional funding, where required, will form part of the normal estimates process. It is not possible at this time to determine the projected cost.

I have secured a €250,000 increase in the funding for 2017 for the victims organisations funded through the Victims of Crime Office in my Department, bringing the total allocation for this year to €1.712m. This funding has been allocated and should help fund improved and expanded services by organisations working with victims. This is in addition to an extra €250,000 that I secured for 2016. Services to victims that received funding in 2017 include helpline services, face to face emotional support, information and court accompaniment to victims and specialist services for those bereaved by homicide, tourist victims, child victims and victims of sexual crime and victims of domestic violence.