Remarks by Minister of State Alex White on behalf of Alan Shatter TD, Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence
I thank the Senators for bringing this motion.
It is important that a focus is placed on the issue of domestic violence on a regular basis. By doing so we encourage those suffering from such abuse in its many forms to seek assistance. We also encourage those who are aware of others suffering abuse to help by seeking information. Most importantly we inform abusers that their behaviour is not to be tolerated by us as a society.
The motion notes the devastating consequences of domestic violence on the individual and on society as well as noting and commending the work being undertaken to support those affected by such violence.
The extent of the effect that domestic violence has on society can be clearly seen from the number and range of state agencies involved in actions to address the issue.
Six Government Departments, associated agencies and more than 50 non-governmental organisations are involved in work addressing domestic violence. The Government sector includes the Departments of Justice and Equality, Education and Skills, Health, Children and Youth Affairs, Social Protection and Environment. That is more than a third of Government departments that have an involvement in this area.
The principal state agencies dealing with the problem are of course An Garda Síochána, The Courts Service and the Health Service Executive. Since the establishment of Cosc - the National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence – we now have a focus point to coordinate the state’s response to this problem. Cosc is part of the Crime Directorate in the Department of Justice and Equality
Cosc, with the involvement of all the State Departments and agencies involved in this area, and with the cooperation and input of the non-state organisations providing services, developed a national strategy to address many aspects of the problems associated with domestic violence and set out actions to prevent such violence.
The strategy is the principal focus for the state’s work on ending domestic violence. The strategy overlaps and cross-references other national policies on Elder Abuse, Child Protection, and Homelessness. Cosc sits on advisory and monitoring groups dealing with these issues.
The National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence 2010-2014 concentrates on a better inter-agency approach. Improving collaboration among services is the approach being taken to provide better protection for victims of this abuse.
The ultimate intent is to reduce the occurrence of domestic violence and ultimately to end such behaviours. It was always recognised, however, that there would be an increase in the reporting of incidences of domestic violence if the strategy was effective in bringing this issue more into the public domain. By highlighting that domestic violence is not a private matter for families to deal with alone, reporting to the authorities and seeking support is encouraged. Guidelines devised by Cosc in relation to awareness raising aim to encourage a shift from a focus on activities only relating to the victim to an inclusion of a focus on the perpetrator and bystander whilst also ensuring that information on support services continues to be made available to victims/survivors.
The National Strategy has four high-level goals. One relates to promoting a culture of recognition and prevention through increased understanding of the behaviours associated with domestic violence. Raising awareness of what constitutes domestic abuse, including the supports available in law and personal support measures, is one of the primary areas that is being addressed. This approach includes the development and dissemination of information on service availability, of better information between services and improving the availability of data on the problem.
Cosc is working with national agencies to develop information across a wide range of educational establishments. This includes schools, universities, vocational education facilities and state services. For instance, I understand that the Department of Education and Skills is currently finalising a module dealing with domestic violence to be given to junior cycle secondary students under the SPHE programme. This module is to be further developed for senior cycle students.
The national strategy also envisages the development of improved legislation in the area. This government has committed in its legislative reform agenda to provide reformed and consolidated domestic violence legislation to address all aspects of domestic violence, threatened violence and intimidation, in a way that provides protection to victims. Cosc is progressing preliminary work towards this commitment through consultation with state and non-state organisations, principally through the National Steering Committee on Violence against Women and its Legal issues sub-committee. The Steering Committee has a wide-ranging membership drawn from the relevant government Departments and state agencies and the principal civil society agencies. The National Steering Committee on Violence against Men also has an opportunity to input into the process. A bi-lateral meeting has also taken place with Women’s Aid. The proposals for legislative reform will be progressed as soon as possible having regard to the need for consultations and other legislative priorities.
In addition, the Law Reform Commission is considering, at the request of the Minister for Justice and Equality, a possible amendment to section 10 of the Non-fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997, which deals with harassment. This arises from reports of difficulties in bringing successful prosecutions under that section in relation to domestic violence. The Law Reform Commission has indicated that it expects to complete a discussion or consultation paper in the first half of this year in relation to their consideration of the provision. The paper is also expected to consider whether stalking should be provided for specifically in legislation.
Since coming into office the Minister for Justice and Equality has made important amendments to the Domestic Violence Acts 1996 and 2002 through the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011.
The first amendment allows for a parent to apply for a safety order against the other parent of their child, even where those parents do not live together and may never have lived together. This amendment ensures that the protection of the law is available where access to a child is an occasion of intimidation or even violence between disputing parents. The Minister has been informed that this amendment has been very well received.
The second amendment extends the protections of the Acts to same-sex couples who have not registered a civil partnership, on the same basis as had previously been available to unmarried opposite-sex couples “living together as husband and wife”. This amendment also removed a residency requirement from the provision to have lived together for at least six of the last twelve months before an application for a safety order could be made.
Domestic violence legislation is contained in more than one main Act and, as with other pieces of legislation, amendments made to the legislation are not automatically inserted into the published Act. This can make understanding of the protections more difficult for the person seeking those protections. For this reason it is important that the legislation be consolidated. Your views today will of course be welcomed in progressing this work.
During our Presidency of the EU, Ireland has successfully negotiated an agreement with the European Parliament on the European Protection Order, a civil law measure which will ensure that victims of domestic violence and other forms of violence, harassment and intimidation can avail of national protections when they travel to other EU Member States. This sends an important signal that domestic violence, harassment and intimidation are unacceptable throughout the EU.
Improving data on the occurrence of domestic violence and on the outcomes for those people, mainly women and their children, affected by it is necessary. Again, Cosc is facilitating work in this matter and the Government’s reform agenda will also assist in this area. Appropriate reporting of general information from family law “in camera” cases has a great potential to improve our knowledge base and to provide valuable information on the operation of the law in this area.
The Courts Bill 2013 – introduced in the Seanad in March of this year – will provide for the modification of the in camera rule which prevents members of the public, including the news media, from being present in court when family law and child care proceedings are being heard. This proposal is in furtherance of the Programme for Government commitment to reform and modernise aspects of family law.
The Bill aims to provide for a careful balancing of the need for privacy for persons involved in family law and child care proceedings with the need to ensure access to important information on the operation of family and child care law in our courts. The Bill proposes to retain the privacy provisions in respect of such court proceedings while allowing the attendance of bona fide representatives of the Press.
The courts will, however, retain the power to exclude representatives of the Press or restrict or prohibit the publication of evidence given in the proceedings in certain circumstances. In addition, a strict prohibition will apply on reporting of material likely to identify the parties to the proceedings or any children to whom the proceedings relate.
Domestic violence is most often associated with spouses or partners. Violence by the male partner against the female partner is the more frequent occurrence, especially in the more serious cases. There are serious instances of women being violent against their male partners too. Frequently, children are caught in the middle where there is domestic violence. Sometimes the children too become victims of violence. Physical violence is accompanied by psychological trauma a child witnesses parents being violent against each other, or one parent perpetrating violence against the other. This is an issue that arises often in the family courts in proceedings associated with separation as well as domestic violence.
Last July, the Minster for Justice and Equality announced that the government had agreed to proceed with a constitutional referendum to facilitate the establishment of new court systems, including family court systems. The Minister and the government see the need for a unified and integrated family court structure. The Minister believes that the judges in those Family Courts should be specialist permanent judges, with expertise in family law and with the appropriate back-up assessment services. Such a family court system would help to better provide for a voice for children, in compliance with our most recent constitutional amendment.
Funding
As with all state services and state funded services, our economic difficulties have undoubtedly had an effect on the level of services that can be provided. However, the government has continued to provide substantial funding for services in this area.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) is the primary funder of work in the area of domestic violence. It provides the bulk of the funds for the operation of refuges and domestic violence support services. It allocated €13.89 million in 2012 to domestic violence refuges and support services, including the national network for such services, Safe Ireland. I understand that a national review of these services undertaken by the HSE and due to be published shortly, will inform the future funding of these services. A new Child and Family Support Agency has taken on the role of the HSE in the area of domestic violence. Cosc liaises with the Chief Executive, Mr Gordon Jeyes and with the National Lead on Domestic and Sexual Violence in the new agency. The new agency will come under the jurisdiction of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs.
In addition the Department of the Environment provides funding for the operation of accommodation and associated services for homeless persons, including victims of domestic violence. This funding is known as Section 10 funding - 90% of costs arising in respect of homeless services are provided by the Department with the remaining 10% provided from within the local authorities’ own resources. This funding is drawn down by local authorities rather than paid out directly by the Department. In 2012, €2.47m was provided under Section 10 funding for domestic violence refuges and transitional housing. I am informed that total Section 10 funding for all homeless accommodation increased substantially from €12.6 million in 1999 to, approximately, €50 million annually over the past decade. While there has been a reduction of approximately two-thirds in overall Exchequer housing investment, the effective maintenance of Section 10 funding has meant that there has been no reduction in the provision of services.
Cosc, currently funds a number of organisations to provide domestic violence perpetrator programmes, with a variety of court-mandated and other programmes in existence. The perpetrator programmes in Ireland are delivered through a combination of community and voluntary organisations and the Probation Service. A total of 13 programmes are currently operating. Almost €625,000 was allocated to programmes by Cosc in 2012. This amounts to 93% of the total funding received by the programmes.
Cosc also operates an awareness raising grant scheme which provides funding for local awareness raising campaigns that increase understanding and recognition of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. Cosc supports collaboration between organisations in raising awareness as an effective communication tool in that it provides an opportunity to reach a wider target audience to reinforce a common message. In 2012 Cosc provided grants totalling €241,820 to 59 successful applicants throughout the country. Applications for the grant scheme for 2013 closed last week and applications are now being assessed.
The Istanbul Convention (Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence)
Ireland supports, in principle, the aims and terms of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The National Strategy is in line with the Council of Europe approach to a multi-sectoral solution covering legislation, coordination of services, awareness-raising at many levels and data collection.
I can confirm to the Senators that we have, in our Presidency role, supported the signature and ratification of the convention at international level. However, there is an issue for Ireland with a constitutional underpinning that Ireland brought to the attention of the Council of Europe during the negotiation process which presents a particular problem. This relates to the issue of emergency barring orders.
While signature to the convention imposes no obligations on the state to implement any of the provisions of the treaty, Ireland would normally only sign those treaties that are compatible with the Irish constitution and whose provisions may therefore be implemented. The Minister favours an approach to the Convention, where Ireland signs the Convention only when it is clear that we are in a position to ratify it. The proposed consolidated and reformed domestic violence legislation may be an appropriate vehicle for some of the legislative changes which may be necessary to enable Ireland to ratify the Convention. The issue of signature of the Convention will be submitted for decision of the Government once this process has been completed and any issues resolved, with the advice of the Attorney General. It is unlikely that signature will be completed during the Presidency of the EU given the present legislative workload.
29 Council of Europe member states have signed the Convention and four have ratified it. It has not yet entered into force as this requires at least ten member states to ratify it.