Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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550. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the steps she is taking to fulfil the programme for Government commitment to develop the third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence which will place a priority on prevention and reduction and will include a national preventative strategy. [37409/21]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Justice Plan 2021 commits to the development of the Third National Strategy to Combat Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence and this is a priority for me and for Government. The new Strategy will have a significant focus on service delivery, as well as cohesive governance and oversight arrangements and will, as the Deputy mentions, place a priority on prevention and reduction and will include a National Preventative Strategy. It is on track to be developed and brought to Government before the end of 2021.

My Department has partnered with key stakeholders in Safe Ireland and the National Women’s Council to provide expert support and guidance in progressing this new strategy. Their work is supported by consultants KW Research, who are working on a number of different elements including a review of the second national strategy, identifying the major issues to be addressed, and coordinating public input into the new strategy. They will be required to incorporate thinking and recommendations from the Government audit of the national DSGBV infrastructure, learnings from the review of the current strategy, and all other relevant statutory reviews, into a new internationally modelled, consultative, best-practice strategy.

Public consultations on the third national strategy are underway, with a number of workshops taking place last month. The analysis of the feedback at these events and the results of an online survey are currently being examined. Interviews with senior decision makers in each relevant Department and agency have also been undertaken.

The next stage will be to identify a set of draft high-level goals and outcomes for agreement. Detailed drafting of proposed actions, timescales and KPIs will then commence.

It is my intention to have a draft strategy ready for a further round of public consultation in September.