We are hearing very distressing news of the death of a man who lived in a tent close to Leinster House this morning. I express my condolences to his family and friends. I just wanted to acknowledge the passing of this man, as it is almost six years to the day of Jonathan Corrie's death. The scandal of street homelessness and rough sleeping must be dealt with and it needs to happen soon.

Today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and it marks the start of the 16-day campaign against domestic and gender-based violence. It is an annual campaign, as the Taoiseach knows. I and others stand up in this Chamber year after year and we recite the statistics that attempt to capture the horrific abuse and violence to which so many women and children are subjected. I have no doubt that everyone in the Dáil gets angry when they hear the heartbreaking stories of women who have been battered and emotionally broken by the violence inflicted upon them. The physical scars and bruises are all too apparent signposts of the trauma experienced, often on a daily basis. The mental suffering, the theft of victims' dignity, confidence and sense of safety is less obvious but it frequently runs deeper. The fear cast by domestic violence, by every beating, every insult and every attempt to control and degrade is something that victims can overcome, but the shadow of abuse is something they carry with them for the rest of their lives.

It is time to face up to the fact that we have a real problem with domestic and gender-based violence in Ireland. It is time for the political system and Government to move past whatever unease they have about owning up to this fact. Violence against women and abuse behind closed doors and drawn curtains is at epidemic levels. The truth is that successive Governments have failed women and children who have been caught up in the horror of this abuse and until a Government confronts this problem with the honesty and the determination that it demands, too many of the cries for help from abused women will go unanswered and unheard. The domestic violence support services providers in Ireland do remarkable work, despite the fact that they have been underfunded for decades but while the abused women battled to survive the impact of the violence against them, these service providers have been battling for resources, funding and proper support from Government. I struggle to find words to express my anger about how this issue has been swept under the carpet for years. It is time our problem with domestic and gender-based violence was brought out into the open so that we can finally deliver policies, supports and the funding necessary to tackle it head on.

I welcome that emergency funding is provided to help services meet Covid-19-related costs; I am very glad the Taoiseach responded to that call. This will help with the immediate Covid challenge. However, we must discuss and deal with the chronic lack of refuge places for women who need to escape the violence, the abuse and the coercive control. Between March and June of this year, 1,351 requests for refuge went unmet because the services were full. Nine counties have no refuge provision at all and this is a scandal. We know that incidents of domestic violence and abuse increase over the Christmas period. Victims, their children and the services they rely on will face a very bleak picture in 2021 if the Government does not act. I, therefore, ask the Taoiseach on this day if he will now commit to ensuring the refuge shortages across the state are urgently addressed.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. I share in the Deputy's expression of sympathies to the family and friends of the homeless individual who passed away. I also convey to the House my deep sadness at the passing of Trish Carrick, whom we lately honoured and spoke of. I offer her husband Damien and children Ciarán, Ríoghna, Sorcha and Eoin our sincere sympathies.

The programme for Government is very clear and has a very strong commitment to developing the third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. There can be no toleration for violence against women in our society. We must do everything we possibly can to assist and support women and families who are the victims of unacceptable violence, aggression and control. We have provided additional resources in the most recent budget to An Garda Síochána, Tusla and other services that support women who have been victims of violence, and we will continue to do that. The Minister for Justice is currently undertaking an audit of all services in this area, which is an area all three Government parties want to prioritise. I assure the Deputy that if she wishes to engage with the Government on the areas or the specific locations where additional funding is required, I will ensure that a response will occur in that regard. Particular funding has been given to Tusla in the budget to deal with the Covid-19 impact. We were particularly concerned about the elevation to level 5 following the experience of the first phase of the lockdown and its impact in the form of increased domestic violence. There was approximately €2 million in addition to approximately €25.3 million that had been allocated to these services for the entirety of 2020.

The Deputy identified an important point about culture and the importance of ensuring within society at large that Ireland makes it very clear that, as a society, there can be absolutely no toleration whatsoever for gender-based violence. We must be absolute about that and then, through education and through a variety of fora, make sure that is clear. We must then ensure that the adequate supports are available so that people can be freed and be enabled to leave that coercive control and situations of violence, safe in the knowledge that there is a pathway out of that experience that, unfortunately, too many in our society have had over the years. Across various Departments, we want to do everything we possibly can to help victims or anybody who is at risk of domestic or sexual abuse. We will continue to be available to help in that regard and provide the necessary supports, and also to strategically deal with this in an effective and comprehensive way.

I too wish to send our sympathies and regards to Damien Carrick on the loss of Trish, a wonderful and courageous woman.

The Taoiseach says there must be no toleration of violence against women and children in our society but the facts are that there is such a tolerance. The Taoiseach says we must do everything we can but everything is not being done. The Taoiseach says we must provide all of the necessary resources and on that point we agree. That, however, is not helped by playing games with big figures such as pointing to the additional money that has been given to Tusla when he knows not one cent of that money has been ring-fenced for domestic violence services. I know there is an audit under way. That could be a really important and significant intervention in all of this but only-----

Thank you, Deputy.

-----if it means there is, finally, full transparency and honesty on this issue. The tolerance to this violence is a reality in Irish society and until we look that in the eye, until we resolve to do something about it on a consistent basis and until it is front and centre in government policy we will continue year on year with people like me and the Taoiseach-----

The time is up Deputy. The Taoiseach to conclude on this important matter.

-----standing up and bewailing this awful situation.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. The programme for Government is very strong on this. It includes a number of relevant and key commitments, including the development of the third national strategy, which would place a priority on prevention and reduction and include a national preventative strategy. As I said, an immediate audit is to be conducted in terms of responsibility for this area across different Government agencies and Departments. The Government is committed to implementing a plan for a future refuge space and to investigate the provision of paid leave and social protection provision to victims of domestic violence and to learn from the experience of the coercive control model in the United Kingdom, including training for An Garda Síochána, legal professionals and Courts Service personnel to ensure there is clear understanding of the offence. The Government wants to legislate to introduce domestic homicide reviews, update the Sex Offenders Act 2001 to ensure convicted sex offenders are effectively managed and monitored, enact a harassment and harmful communications Bill, which the Minister has been speaking about, to outlaw image-based sexual abuse and to prevent abusive sharing of intimate images online and, crucially, to implement the findings of the O'Malley review of supports for vulnerable witnesses in sexual violence cases to support victims.