Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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91. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to confirm receipt of a submission (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46061/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department has received this submission directly from Safe Ireland and the contents have been noted. Nevertheless, I'd like to thank you for bringing this to my attention and also to acknowledge the hugely valuable work that Safe Ireland does for victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV).

My Department has a strong record and commitment to sectoral engagement and aims to ensure that we harness the best service responses from across the statutory, community and voluntary sectors for those of greatest need in society.

Negotiations for Budget 2023 are ongoing at this time.

With input from the Taoiseach, Minister McEntee and I have worked intensively with Departmental officials on the Audit of the segmentation of Government’s response to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and how the results of that audit fits with the Third National Strategy on DSGBV. As a result of those discussions and in response to the audit, it has been agreed that the Department of Justice will be the lead Department with responsibility for responding to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, and that responsibility for policy, accommodation and services will also sit within the Department of Justice.

In the meantime, my Department and Tusla are actively collaborating with the Department of Justice.