Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

I will try in the time I have to respond. There has been a huge number of contributions this afternoon following on from Private Members' business this morning. As we discuss this issue, I am very conscious that, for all of us, to the very fore are victims and survivors and how we can do more to put in place the resources, supports and structures to change attitudes and behaviours, are to the fore. We have acknowledged, and rightly so, a number of young women in recent days who have come forward and shown huge bravery. There are many women as well with whom I, and others, have engaged. I am also conscious that in a Chamber that comprises 166 TDs, many of whom are women, and staff, there are victims and survivors in this Chamber. There are victims and survivors in all of our circles of friends, in our families and in any large group of people with whom we may engage in our work or in our daily lives. We do this for ourselves, our families, our friends, for those who do not have a voice and for those who are courageously speaking out as well. We are all committed, as we have seen in the debate, to doing more and to doing better.

If we are serious about keeping this on the agenda, which I know we are, when we all leave this Chamber, I ask that we keep this issue on our agenda. I will leave and continue to develop and progress new legislation but I do that in conjunction with the support of colleagues here. Much of the laws I outlined in my earlier contribution were proposals from other Deputies across other parties, An Garda Síochána and services for victims and survivors. We have to continue to do this by working together. I will continue to seek the additional funding required in this year's budget. I will seek the support of the Houses to make sure that can be approved.

When it comes to policies and the zero-tolerance plan, which is our third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, it is not a static document but rather a living, breathing document. If there are policies or actions in it that do not work, they can be changed or amended. If there are new ideas and policies, it is about including them and bringing them forward. I look forward to continuing to work with colleagues in the same way we have done for many years to try to deal with what is an epidemic in our society.

Earlier, I mentioned work that has been done. I am not suggesting for a second everything is done and there is nothing to do. There is so much more we need to do but it will take time for many of those actions to be felt and seen properly. Only in recent years, we introduced laws around coercive control. While we have rightly recognised the significant crime and impact it has on individuals, it took time for that to come through our courts, for victims to feel confident in coming forward and for An Garda Síochána, the DPP and others to recognise this. Once there was a conviction, we started to see more victims coming forward. I really hope we will start to see the taking effect of some of the laws we have passed in the past six months, such as the law around non-fatal strangulation. Of course, it is a crime to strangle another person. However, in instances where there is violence within a home, which, unfortunately, affects women mostly, and when there is strangulation, it is so often the case that the woman does not think it is serious enough or a crime in itself and therefore, does not come forward. We know - and the facts show - that a woman is nine times more likely to be killed at the hands of her partner when there is non-fatal strangulation in a relationship. By passing these new laws and by making it a stand-alone offence, I hope that, in time, sooner rather than later, we will start to see an impact in the same way as we did in the UK when these types of laws were changed. The same applies to policy and to the new funding that has been allocated to the different services. It will take time for those services to expand to be able to reach the capacity they need and want to reach. We obviously know we need to do more.

Colleagues have spoken about a top-down, bottom-up approach. That is absolutely what needs to happen. Every part of our community needs to play its part, including through education our schools to ensure that, at the earliest stage possible, our young people are being educated in an age-appropriate way and we talk about consent and healthy sexual relationships. It is about ensuring we talk with young people in order that the habits they learn, the relationships they have and the way in which they engage with each other from earlier ages can follow through later in life. I also acknowledge this is not just an issue for younger people but one that affects older people, too. That is an area in which educational awareness and the campaigns we have rolled out, and need to continue rolling out, are so important, such as the We Consent, Still Here and Know Your Rights campaigns. We need to ensure we build on those campaigns and ensure awareness raising is constant in everyday living. It is about supporting those who work on the ground. Deputies in Sinn Féin mentioned different individuals and groups who are fantastic and do fantastic work in our communities. We need to continue to support them in those innovative ways.

Many of the projects in the community safety innovation fund, which is a fund established by this Government to take money away from criminals and give it directly back into our communities, are focused on supporting victims of domestic and sexual violence. This issue is about community safety as the one place where individuals should be safe is in their homes. There are a lot of different ways we can support individuals and organisations working on the ground, not just through Cuan but through the innovation fund as well. It is about protecting and supporting our front-line services. I committed and will absolutely commit to doing more.

While funding of approximately €40 million has been put into the services and supports in the past three and a half years alone, we need to do more. We need to work with those services to ensure they can expand and support the staff and team they need to provide these vital services. It is about working with all professionals who come into contact with victims, from our gardaí, our legal profession and Judiciary to those in our healthcare professions such as our counsellors, psychologists and those working with children to make sure that, at every step of the way, training is available and that, where necessary and required, individuals undertake this training.

This concerns all of us as lawmakers and every part of government, not just the Department of Justice. While the Department plays a key role in making sure perpetrators are held accountable, the Department of housing, which has been mentioned, plays its role, which it is doing, in a significant way through the development of refuge and accommodation and in making sure our local authorities have plans, clear routes and pathways for families, women and victims to access housing when a refuge is not available or when they have spent time in refuge and need to move on. It is about the Department of Social Protection doing more. It has made progress in providing funding and supports to those who are victims. It concerns the Department of Health in making sure health professionals are available in all parts of the country to support those who need it. There is a really frightening statistic from a report from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, which I launched last week, which states that there are more and more presentations of victims of sexual violence who have suicide ideation. We need to make sure those health supports are there for them as well. It concerns the Department of Transport because people have talked about the need to be able to get home safe. We need to make sure the measures and supports are there. It concerns the Department for enterprise in making sure practices are in place in both in the public and private sectors to call out these types of behaviours.

We also need to make sure that, in the work we do, we particularly focus on and support those who are vulnerable. All victims of domestic and sexual violence are vulnerable but there are those who are even more vulnerable, such as those who are from a minority background, migrant communities or those who are trafficked into this country. We know there is an issue of women being trafficked for social exploitation. We need to do more and we will do more. We need to protect those in the LGBTQ+ community as we know that vulnerable people, in particular, are being preyed on. We also need to protect those who have disabilities.

This is where the zero-tolerance strategy is so important. There are actions in the strategy to address many of the issues I have mentioned. It is important there is oversight. It was my number one priority to ensure this was not going to be a plan to sit on the shelf that would not be enacted or a plan with no clear timelines that did not allocate actions to agencies, individuals, Departments or parts of our community. Progress reports are being provided and I will have another progress report for Cabinet in early September. There is an implementation plan, which was published earlier this year, in which people can see very clearly how those actions are progressing and where we need to do more in areas where they are not progressing, as well as what the timelines are. I will commit to make sure those actions will continue and, as we move forward to the next national strategy, if there is further progress needed to be done on current actions, I will ensure that can happen.

The strategy itself focus on four key areas, namely, prevention, protection, prosecution and policy co-ordination. I have mentioned a lot on the prevention pillar such as education, awareness raising and protection. It is about ensuring services and supports are there. I will continue to increase funding and supports for those in our services and also for the roll-out of refuge and accommodation. I appreciate the frustration in that people are not seeing this rolled out quickly enough. We have had a situation whereby a refuge was not developed unless an organisation or group of people in a county were willing to develop one. We need to put in place a structure that makes sure that if there is no support, resource or service in an area, we can come in and work to make sure one can be developed.

That is happening now. A structure has been put in place for areas that do not have a refuge or need additional refuge and accommodation. There are very clear signs of progress and where accommodation has been identified, it has been secured and bought. Planning processes are in train and funding has been allocated so we are starting to see that progress. I appreciate that people want it to happen quicker. Anything we can do, working with Cuan, to make that as fast a process as possible, will be done.

Improving our criminal justice system is absolutely vital and this is what has brought this into sharp focus again this week. There is a need to improve our criminal justice system, to make it more victim-centred and to make sure that those working in it are trained and understand the needs of victims. We also need to look beyond domestic and sexual violence to our family courts. This is why I am so determined that we will implement our family courts Bill and that we will have separate family courts. As well as that, there will be a particular emphasis on protecting those who are vulnerable, the victims of domestic and sexual violence. There should be a crossover between the two courts and the voice of the child should be heard.

The report we published in the past few weeks will now be implemented and will make sure that when anybody issues or asks for a voice-of-the-child report or a welfare report, it will be conducted by professionals who have the qualifications. Families will not be burdened with the cost of this and it will be done in the most appropriate way possible and be well governed and managed. For so long, children's voices have not been heard at the centre of this.

In terms of policy co-ordination, Cuan will be important in implementing this strategy and bringing all of us together and keeping it firmly on the agenda, so that no matter what happens, who is in power or what is on the agenda, that this will be front and centre and will remain a priority for Government.

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