Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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1435.To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if she will report on her engagement with the Minister for Social Protection in respect of the need to ensure that the social protection and maintenance systems do not tether victims of domestic violence to their abusers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31059/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, in 2022 I published Zero Tolerance: Ireland’s Third National Strategy to combat Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (DSGBV). The strategy sets out an ambitious whole of government five-year programme of reform to achieve a society which does not accept DSGBV or the attitudes which underpin these crimes and to create a system that supports and empowers victims.

Under the previous and current implementation plans, a range of actions are assigned to various Departments and Agencies to deliver and earlier this year I established Cuan, our new statutory DSGBV Agency which is tasked with coordinating and driving implementation of the Strategy.

While there are no specific actions related to the social protection and maintenance systems in the 2024 Zero Tolerance implementation plan, I have always said that the Strategy and accompanying implementation plans are living documents.

To reflect this, there is a more general action in the 2024 implementation plan to “Engage with relevant government fora and departments to inform the development of public policy and practice on DSGBV issues on a quarterly basis.”

This action will be undertaken by Q4 of 2024 and I have asked officials in Cuan to engage with the Department of Social Protection to consider this matter further.