merrion street

The Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan T.D., has today announced that there will be a mid-term review of the Second National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence 2016-2021.

Minister Flanagan said: “Protecting and supporting victims of domestic and sexual violence is a priority for this Government and the successful delivery of the national strategy is key. It is timely, at this mid-point in the strategy’s term, that we seek to identify learnings which will inform this important strategy for the remainder of its term.”

The strategy, which was launched in November 2015 by former Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald T.D., is a whole of Government response to tackling domestic and sexual violence. It contains a range of actions to be implemented by Government Departments and agencies aimed at changing societal attitudes through awareness raising to help prevent domestic and sexual violence, improving services to victims and holding perpetrators to account. Key actions include the national awareness raising campaign “What would you do?” and the enactment of significant legislation such as the Domestic Violence Act 2018.

As part of the review, Cosc, the National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence, will invite key stakeholders and the general public to complete a questionnaire which will be made available on the Cosc website - www.cosc.ie. Notice of the review will be advertised in national newspapers today (Thursday 31 January). Responses from the questionnaires will be analysed by the University of Limerick who will report on emerging themes.