Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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183. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of Garda call-outs to instances of domestic violence in each county in the State, in each of the past five years, in tabular form. [41824/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Combatting all forms of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV) remains an absolute priority for this Government, for me as Minister for Justice and for the Garda Commissioner.

'Zero Tolerance,' the Third National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence (DSGBV), 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.

The Strategy, which was co-designed with the sector, also has a significant focus on improving the system for victims of these terrible crimes and on ensuring there is a full range of supports and services available nationwide to support and empower victims and survivors.

A significant objective has been to encourage victims of domestic violence to come forward and to report the crimes that are being committed against them.

This is an important step because historically there has been an under-reporting of domestic, sexual and gender based violence. I welcome that more people who have been impacted are coming forward, reporting what has happened to them and accessing supports.

Under Budget 2025, I was pleased to announce that DSGBV funding has increased to €70m, of which €67m is allocated to Cuan.

This more than triples the funding for DSGBV services from when I first became Minister for Justice, and represents a further significant increase for 2025.

Increasing funding for Cuan to €67m will provide for additional resources to support the implementation of the Zero Tolerance strategy, with funding for 80 additional refuge spaces.

I have also strengthened our laws in this area, and introduced additional supports for victims, so that they have the confidence to come forward and report what has happened.

I have legislated for new standalone offences of non-fatal strangulation and stalking and I have increased the maximum penalty for assault causing harm, one of the most commonly prosecuted domestic violence related offences, from five to ten years. l have also strengthened the law on sexual offences and improved protections throughout the criminal justice process system for victims of sexual offences.

In addition, there are now divisional protective service units (DPSUs) across the country with specially trained officers who will engage with, and support, vulnerable victims and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions now has a specialist sexual offences unit.

In response to the Deputy's query, An Garda Síochána have advised that the data provided in response to Parliamentary Question 1466 on the 23 July, 2024, remains the most up-to-date information and that full year statistics for 2024 will not be available until after the year end.

For ease of reference, I have provided the available information in the table attached.