Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, Ireland formally ratified the Istanbul Convention on 8 March 2019 (International Women’s Day), having given full effect to all obligations required of it.

This was achieved through the completion of an extensive action plan incorporated into the Second National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence (DSGBV).

This work included the enactment of a number of significant pieces of legislation required to give effect to the Convention in Irish law, including -

• The Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Act 2017
• The Criminal Justice (Sexual Offences) Act 2017
• The Domestic Violence Act 2018
• This Criminal Law (Extraterritorial Jurisdiction) Act 2019.

Other necessary actions for the ratification of the Istanbul Convention incorporated into the Second National Strategy were:

• The development and delivery of education and training modules to specific target groups in the public sector including An Garda Síochána, the Courts Service, Tusla (Child and Family Agency) and the Health Service Executive (HSE);
• The development and implementation of a Risk Assessment Matrix by An Garda Síochána for all victims of domestic violence and sexual crime;
• The implementation by Tusla of two integrated national 24 hour helplines to respond to the issues of domestic violence and sexual violence; and
• The provision of support for child witnesses of domestic and sexual violence

The Third National Strategy published in June 2022 is structured around the four pillars of the Istanbul Convention – Protection, Prevention, Prosecution and Policy Co-ordination and builds on what has been achieved under the Second National Strategy.

The first accompanying implementation plan contained 144 detailed actions assigned to my department and other departments and agencies across Government and subsequent implementation plans will be published annually during the lifetime of the Strategy.

In line with the priority which this Government is attaching to tackling DSGBV, we have committed to doubling the number of refuge spaces over the lifetime of the strategy, bringing it to 280 by the end of 2026.

The Deputy will be aware of the recent establishment of Cuan, the new DSGBV Agency.

The new agency will work collaboratively with the NGO and DSGBV sector to ensure that the best possible services are in place to meet the needs of victims and survivors.

It will be tasked with supporting and overseeing the delivery of safe and accessible refuge accommodation and ensuring the delivery of excellent services to victims of DSGBV (including helpline and other supports).

I have also strengthened our legislation in a number of areas including by:

• Doubling the maximum sentence for assault causing harm to 10 years;
• Increasing the maximum sentence for conspiracy to murder from 10 years to life;
• Increasing the maximum sentence for assaulting a Garda or emergency worker from 7 to 12 years.
• Providing new and stronger measures to improve the post release supervision of sex offenders and provide for electronic tagging
• Making stalking a standalone criminal offence, with a sentence of up to 10 years;
• Introducing a new offence of non-fatal strangulation or non-fatal suffocation with a maximum sentence of up to ten years.
• Providing for civil orders restraining stalking type behaviour.

I can assure the Deputy that we will continue to review progress on the development of refuge accommodation and will continue to build on what has been achieved by setting goals to bring us closer to the targets set for refuge accommodation under the Istanbul Convention.

Regarding the spend related to the Convention, Ireland has fully incorporated the Istanbul obligations into the current and previous DSGBV Strategy and other DSGBV initiatives.

As such, it is not possible to extrapolate such figures from general DSGBV and Victims of Crime funding.