Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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1248. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of domestic violence incidents reported to An Garda Síochána in each of the years 2017 to 2021; the breakdown of these incidents by incident types (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1201/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005, the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the administration and management of An Garda Síochána. As Minister for Justice, I have no direct role in these matters.

To be of assistance to the Deputy, I requested and received the information set out in the following table from An Garda Síochána:

I am informed that figures were collated based on PULSE data as of 1:30 am on the 7th January, 2022.  They are operational and may be liable to change. Crime counting rules are not applied to reflect all recorded incidents. Figures less than 10 are not released due to data protection considerations.

Operation Faoiseamh, which commenced on 1 April 2020, is an initiative undertaken by An Garda Síochána for the purpose of providing enhanced proactive support to victims of domestic abuse. The Garda National Protective Service Bureau (GNPSB) oversees the implementation of this proactive initiative.

I can assure the Deputy that this Government is committed to tackling domestic, sexual and gender based violence in all its forms, and to supporting victims of this heinous crime.

As the Deputy will be aware, my Department is leading the development across government of the Third National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence. This plan will outline how the government will radically improve services and supports for victims and will be the most ambitious plan to date.

My Department is also currently implementing Supporting a Victim’s Journey, our plan to help victims and vulnerable witnesses in sexual violence cases which I published last year. Its implementation will reform the criminal justice system at every point a victim comes into contact with it.

The increased funding of €5.35m secured under Budget 2022 will allow us to continue to build on the work undertaken in 2021 and enable us to roll out specific awareness raising and training programmes to combat domestic, sexual and gender based violence. It will also allow us to provide additional supports to NGOs and specific domestic violence intervention programmes and it will support a number of front line activities. We will continue to work to improve the system for victims and to better support them so they have confidence to reach out for help and report what has happened.

As part of this, an additional €1.1m will be used to put in place a legal advice and legal aid service in court for victims of sexual violence and €1 million is being provided to the Garda vote to refurbish and upgrade the Divisional Protective Service Units.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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1249. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons convicted of breaching domestic violence orders; the number of cases which resulted in jail terms for the perpetrators in 2019, 2020 and 2021; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1202/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998, management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service, which is independent in exercising its functions. This includes the provision of information on the courts system. 

To be of assistance, I made enquiries with the Courts Service, who have informed me that they can only provide data where offence codes provided on the system were used by prosecutors.  Where prosecutors may have used free text, such offences would not be included in the data provided. 

The table below displays the number of offences and the number of persons in the District Court where convictions have been recorded for the time period requested.

The following table displays the number of court orders for imprisonments in the District Court. Please note that a person may receive more than one sentence of imprisonment e.g. a person may have more than one offence and received imprisonment on one offence and imprisonment suspended on the other offence.

I can assure the Deputy that tackling domestic, sexual and gender based violence is a top priority for me and for Government.

I am committed to placing victims at the centre of our criminal justice system, through the implementation of Supporting a Victims Journey. This is a detailed roadmap, which when implemented, will ensure we have a more victim-centred system that supports and empowers victims and gives them the confidence to engage with all services knowing they will be supported, informed and treated with respect and dignity by every person they come into contact with.

An Garda Síochána continue to develop their specialist services in this area. Divisional Protective Services Unit (DPSU) have been rolled out nationwide to provide a best practice service in relation to all domestic abuse incidents. Operation Faoiseamh which commenced on 1 April 2020 continues to provide enhanced proactive support and protection to victims of domestic abuse.

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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1250. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons convicted of coercive control in 2019, 2020 and 2021; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1203/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998, management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service, which is independent in exercising its functions. This includes the provision of information on the courts system. 

To be of assistance, I have made enquiries with the Courts Service on the number of persons convicted of coercive control in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

The Court Services advises that many of those offences have been sent forward for trial to the Circuit Court.  At this time, the system in use by the Courts Service in the Circuit Courts cannot produce reports for specific offences. The reports which are available are by offence category rather than for individual offences and categories of offences can contain multiple offences. Therefore it is not possible to provide the number of persons convicted in the Circuit Court.

The Court Service has provided statistics on the number of persons convicted in the District Court and the number of persons sent forward for trial to a Higher Court that were recorded in the District Court for the period Jan – Dec 2019, Jan – Dec 2020 & Jan – Dec 2021. That information is included in tabular form below. 

I am further advised that Courts can only provide data where offence codes provided on the system were used by prosecutors. Prosecutors may have used uncoded free text offences and any such offences would not be included in the data provided.

As the Deputy will be aware, the landmark Domestic Violence Act 2018 recognises in law the devastating impact that coercive control has for those it is inflicted on.

A number of media reports recorded convictions for coercive control last year at Circuit Court level and I welcome those. The sentences handed down for the hideous crime of coercive crime will help convey the message that perpetrators cannot act with impunity and will change how as a society we view and tackle such heinous behaviour. The bravery of the victims in these cases is to be commended. It is hoped that as more convictions follow, other victims of coercive control will feel confident to come forward.