Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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172. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the number of adults and children who accessed Tusla-funded domestic violence refuge accommodation to date in 2020; the average length of time families spent in such accommodation; and the number of beds available on a given night in 2019. [31923/20]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, provides funding and coordination supports to some 60 organisations that deliver a range of services for victims of domestic, sexual and gender based violence throughout the country.

In 2020, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs is providing Tusla with core funding of €25.3m for almost 60 organisations that deliver services for victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV). To date, Tusla has advised that it also has issued some €800,000 to DSGBV services to respond to the challenges arising from COVID-19 this year, with a further €400,000 in identified costs currently expected to maintain business-as-usual across all DSGBV services up to year end. 

With regard to statistics relating to the use of Tusla-funded emergency domestic violence accommodation, Tusla has advised that data is collected retrospectively. The Department's understanding is that full data for 2019 is not yet available. I had hoped that a data report would be ready by Quarter 3 this year. However, Tusla had to prioritise the urgent needs of services after the outbreak of COVID-19, which delayed a number of processes. Tusla expects to finalise the substantive work of data verification later this year.