Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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172. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he will provide a schedule by year, amount and organisation in respect of the funding his Department has issued for the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence. [23627/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Tackling Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence (DSGBV) is an absolute priority for me as Minister for Justice. 

This includes focusing on prevention and on providing victim-centred supports and services and implementing the €363 million Zero Tolerance plan. 

Under Budget 2023, an extra €9 million was secured, a 22% increase, for combatting domestic, sexual and gender based violence. This will also support the implementation of  Zero Tolerance our Third National Strategy to combat Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.

This €9 million includes increased funding of €7 million for organisations funded by TUSLA to address acute service demands in existing services throughout the country, and for investment in new services as outlined in Zero Tolerance. This funding also strengthens the nationwide supports, and will help to maintain the momentum in implementing the ambitious goals set out in the national strategy.

In total, this year, Tusla has been allocated €37 million for funding DSGBV services which includes the additional €7 million in funding secured by my Department. I have referred this question to Tusla for direct answer in respect of the breakdown of this funding allocation for this year and for the provision of information in relation to funding provided in preceding three years.

Separate to the funding provided for DSGBV services, this year the Department of Justice has allocated €6.09 million for measures to tackle DSGBV, including through awareness raising campaigns and funding for perpetrator programmes.

My Department has also allocated a further €5.8 million in funding to promote and assist the development of specific support services for victims of crime within the criminal justice system, which includes victims of domestic and sexual crime. 

In relation to the specific information sought by the Deputy on the breakdown of this funding allocation, I will respond directly to the Deputy with the breakdown requested for 2020 to 2023 as soon as the information has been compiled.