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Dáil
‹ Order of Business

Sexual violence data failures

Summary

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald raised serious concerns about Garda and State data collection on sexual offences and domestic violence, saying the system was at crisis point. The Minister for Justice said the Domestic Violence Bill was coming soon and would help address some of the issues.

Yesterday, the National Women's Council of Ireland raised very serious concerns in response to a report demonstrating that An Garda Síochána had been overstating the number of sexual offences reported by 26% in 2003 and by 6% overall for the 14 years up to 2016. The National Women's Council of Ireland described the system-wide shortfall of data collection and analysis by State services which interact with victims of domestic and sexual violence as "at crisis point". I put it to the Taoiseach that his Government is simply not delivering on the ambitious policies, legislation and resources necessary to tackle head-on the prevalence of domestic and sexual violence in Ireland. Has the Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland, SAVI, 2 scoping group submitted a report to the justice Minister? Will the commissioned report include a review of domestic and sexual violence-related data collection and the analysis by State agencies, information technology infrastructure and cross-agency data management? Will the Government act on the recommendation of Women's Aid to introduce a "no contact until contact is safe" rule for access arrangements in the case of domestic violence?

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I have a question on the same matter.

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You cannot raise a question on the same matter as a leader.

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It has been done before and it was allowed.

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Charles Flanagan Minister for Justice and Equality Fine Gael

I was not present at the launch of that report this morning as I was attending Cabinet. I am aware of its content and I am also aware of the seriousness of these issues in the context of a recent court case in particular North of the Border and out of the jurisdiction.

I appeal again to this House at the start of this term to facilitate the passage of important legislation in the area of justice. I refer specifically to the Domestic Violence Bill. I expect that to be passed, with the co-operation of the House, within three or four weeks. That will deal with some of the issues raised by Deputy Mary Lou McDonald. There are, of course, other issues and that is why over the Easter break I announced a review will be undertaken by my Department in consultation with stakeholders, in particular women's groups, which I intend meeting over the next few days. I will deal with a number of specific questions at 5 p.m. and I would be happy to update the House at any time on the package of measures I intend to review.

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