Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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128. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to outline his strategy towards stemming the tide of domestic abuse and supporting survivors of domestic abuse; the work under way in his Department in this regard; if the number of refuge spaces will increase in 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24866/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I am absolutely committed to a zero tolerance approach to the scourge of domestic violence and the conditions in which it thrives.

In January 2024, the Government established a new domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence agency, Cuan, to coordinate and drive the implementation of the Third National Strategy.

I have prioritised this since my appointment as Minister and have already secured Government approval to bring forward legislation that will, in certain situations, remove guardianship rights from individuals convicted of killing their partner or the other parent of their child. These provisions will be referred for pre-legislative scrutiny and drafting.

In addition, last week the Government approved my proposal to draft a provision to ensure that counselling records are only released where the Court decides that they contain material relevant to legal proceedings. This will be included in the Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill which has now been referred to the Office of Parliamentary Counsel for drafting and to the Oireachtas Justice Committee for pre-legislative scrutiny.

The Programme for Government sets out a commitment to working with An Garda Síochána to ensure that a person in an intimate relationship can be informed of a serious risk to them where a new partner has a history of domestic violence, and that work is also being progressed by my Department.

My intention is these changes will build on legislative changes introduced by the last Government which included doubling to ten years the maximum sentence for assault causing harm, one of the most common offences in domestic violence scenarios, and the introduction of standalone offences for stalking and non-fatal strangulation.

I launched Cuan's hard hitting new national public awareness campaign on DSGBV, the Hardest Stories, in late February.

In the coming weeks, I will publish a final implementation plan for Zero Tolerance, covering the remaining two years of the lifetime of the Strategy.

Key areas which will be progressed in 2025 and 2026 include:

• enhanced provision of high quality DSGBV training and development programmes to frontline professionals across the health and social care sector;
• investment and support to DSGBV service providers to enhance service provision and capacity; and
• increase domestic violence accommodation capacity with 22 new units to be delivered in 2025, [bringing the total number of units, including the number under construction to 213 by year end] will be confirmed with CUAN on 12th May