Written answers

Wednesday, 18 October 2017

Department of Justice and Equality

Legislative Measures

Photo of Maureen O'SullivanMaureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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125. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he will report on the progress of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017; the statistics to back up the progress in terms of enforcement and support for victims; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44236/17]

Photo of Charles FlanaganCharles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 was passed by the Houses of the Oireachtas on 14th February 2017. Much of the Act was commenced on 27th March 2017 and work is ongoing to ensure that the remaining sections of the Act are commenced as soon as practicable.

Due to the recent enactment of the Bill, the operational needs of adapting crime recording systems to record new crimes, and the standard for statistical reports to be produced a number of months after the period recorded, statistics are as yet unavailable. 

I believe that support for victims of crime is essential. To that end, a number of offices within my Department provided funding to organisations supporting victims of crime. So far, in 2017, the Victims of Crime Office has allocated funding of just over €1.7m to organisations supporting victims of crime, €209,000 of which went to organisations supporting victims of sexual crime. This was augmented by funding from Cosc, the National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence, who provided €40,000 towards supports for victims of sexual crimes. The Anti-Human Trafficking Unit in my Department has also provided €260,000 to date in 2017 to Ruhama. Ruhama deals primarily with women affected by prostitution and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation.

I am pleased to inform the Deputy also that I expect the Victims of Crime Bill 2015, which will give legislative effect to the EU Victims Directive, to complete its passage through the Houses of the Oireachtas in the coming days. 

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