Written answers

Wednesday, 22 January 2025

Department of Justice and Equality

Domestic Violence

Photo of Sorca ClarkeSorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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957. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of emergency calls to An Garda Síochána reporting domestic abuse during 2024. [46534/24]

Photo of Helen McEnteeHelen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Combatting all forms of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence remains a priority for this Government, for my Department and for the Garda Commissioner.

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

An Garda Síochána and my Department are continuing to work hard to strengthen trust and confidence in the system, so that victims will feel confident in coming forward to report what has happened to them and get justice.

An Garda Síochána prioritise and proactively respond to incidents of domestic abuse and the nationwide roll out of Divisional Protective Service Units (DPSUs) ensures that when vulnerable victims of crimes such as domestic abuse and sexual violence present to Gardaí, they are met with a consistently high standard of specialist, sensitive, professional and expert assistance.

As part of delivering on the commitments under the Third National Strategy, I strengthened the law to combat all forms of domestic, sexual and gender based violence, including by introducing new stand-alone offences of stalking and non-fatal strangulation and by doubling to 10 years the maximum sentence for assault causing harm, this being one of the most common offences in domestic violence cases and also commenced parts 1, 2, 4 and 5 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Act 2024 which, among other things, improve supports for victims.

I have been informed by An Garda Síochána that the following table provides a full year count of Domestic Abuse calls received during 2024.

2024
Domestic Incidents 65,114

The annual total includes PULSE incidents where the incident type is one of:

  • Breach of Barring Order
  • Breach of Emergency Barring Order
  • Breach of Safety Order
  • Breach of Protection Order
  • Breach of Interim Barring Order
  • Domestic - No Offence Identified
  • Coercive Control
Or is of any PULSE incident type and has a recorded ‘Domestic Abuse’ motive. Or is of any PULSE incident type and has a CAD or GardaSAFE originating call type of ‘DVSA’ or ‘DOMESTIC’.

The data was extracted from the PULSE database on 8 January 2025, is operational and subject to change.

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