Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1309. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of times gardaí were called to private dwellings as a result of alleged domestic violence in each county in the State in each of the past ten years in tabular form. [2193/22]

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. On foot of the Deputy's question, contact was made with An Garda Síochána to seek the specific information sought and it is presented in the table below.

To determine the number of domestic abuse calls reported in a given timeframe a number of criteria are applied. The counts in the table below are a combination of the following:

The PULSE incident type is one of:

- Breach of Interim Barring Order

- Breach of Protection Order

- Breach of Barring Order

- Breach of Safety Order

- Domestic Dispute - No Offence Disclosed

- Breach of Emergency Barring Order

or is of any incident type, but with a recorded motive of ‘Domestic Abuse’.

In addition to the above, incidents of any type recorded on PULSE which were the result of a call for assistance where the dispatcher assigned the type as ‘DVSA’ (Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault) are included.

A further condition applied is the incident occurred at a residential location type. A residential location type being either of the following PULSE location types:

- Apartment Complex

- B&B / Guest House

- Cottages

- Driveway

- Flat Complex

- Garage (Domestic)

- Garden / Gardens

- Garden Shed

- Halting Site

- Holiday Home

- House

- Lodge

- Mansions

- Mobile Home

- Outhouse/Shed

The table below shows counts of incidents reported per Garda division in each of the years requested by the Deputy, that meet the above criteria:

An Garda Síochána continue to develop their specialist services in this area. Divisional Protective Services Units (DPSUs) 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.

This Government is committed to tackling domestic, sexual and gender based violence in all its forms, and to supporting victims of this heinous crime.

Our commitment to combatting domestic, sexual and gender based violence and to supporting victims is reflected in the funding allocated under Budget 2022, with a total of €13m allocated to my Department for its work in this area. This represents an increased allocation of €5.35m and will 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.

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. This will allow us to better support and protect vulnerable victims.

The Deputy will be aware that I am 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. Its implementation will reform the criminal justice system at every point a victim comes into contact with it.