Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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8. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of times gardaí were called to scenes of domestic violence in the State in each of the past ten years and to date in 2023, by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6738/23]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Tackling domestic violence and supporting vulnerable victims are priorities for the Department of Justice, for Government and for the Garda Commissioner. 

It is recognised that, historically, many people did not feel able to come forward to report domestic violence, for fear of retribution or indeed because they did not have confidence that the system would support and protect them.

An Garda Síochána and my Department are working hard to strengthen trust and confidence in the criminal justice system so that victims feel empowered to come forward. 

My Department has also worked with criminal justice agencies and civil society frontline partners on national awareness raising campaigns and to co-design our most ambitious domestic, sexual and gender based violence strategy.

I can assure the Deputy that the Gardaí prioritise and proactively respond to incidents of domestic abuse and have themselves reported that they respond to a domestic abuse incident approximately every 10 minutes.

Gardaí now have Divisional Protective Services Units in each division, so specialised teams nationwide follow up with vulnerable victims in these most difficult cases.

They have also introduced new mandatory domestic violence training, as well as training for using the ‘Risk Evaluation Tool’ to ensure all vulnerable victims receive the service and supports they need.

As part of delivering on the commitments under the Third National Strategy, Minister Harris is strengthening the law in this area, including by increasing the penalties for assault causing harm, introducing standalone offences of non-fatal strangulation and by progressing a new Sexual Offences Bill which will, among other things, better support victims.

Work also continues to implement Supporting a Victim’s Journey, to reform the criminal justice system at every point a victim comes into contact with it, .

I am informed by An Garda Síochána that the number of domestic violence calls responded to in 2022 was 53,775.

This represents an increase of 4462 calls responded to, or approximately an 9% increase on 2021 figures.

Overall there has been approximately a 40% increase in domestic violence calls responded to by Gardaí across the country when compared with 2019 figures (which, as previously explained, was the year changes in the recording of these figures were introduced and so is the earliest comparable year to the 2022 figures) .