Minister Zappone announces progress following additional €1.5 million investment in Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence Services

Progress includes:

increase in funding to sexual violence services
recruitment of additional domestic violence outreach workers
healing programmes for children who have witnessed domestic violence delivered in 7 Tusla areas, with delivery to remaining 10 Tusla areas by year end
significant progress towards the opening of a new refuge in South Dublin
strategic reviews of domestic violence accommodation in Dublin and nationally (see below substantive work will be completed on reviews by year end)
once-off funding is being provided in 2019, to support and enhance services in alignment with obligations under the Istanbul Convention (Funding to enhance domestic violence helpline is once-off, funding for Galway refuge also comes from once–off funding – important that this is clear)

Frontline services combating domestic, sexual and gender-based violence received funding of €25.3 million in 2019 to support their services, according to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr Katherine Zappone TD.

A €1.5 million increase was provided on the 2018 funding to allow for a number of new initiatives.

Minister Zappone confirmed that progress has been made in a number of areas, including:

sexual violence services have received increased funding
additional outreach workers have been recruited in a number of areas
healing programmes for children have been rolled out in 7 Tusla areas and further programmes will be rolled out in the remaining 10 Tusla areas by year end
waiting lists for counselling for victims of sexual violence are being reduced
a new refuge providing additional emergency refuge domestic violence accommodation will be operational in South Dublin by year end
substantive work will be completed on the strategic domestic violence accommodation reviews in Dublin and nationally by year end

Welcoming the progress made to support and enhance domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services, Minister Zappone said:

“As Minister I have seen at first hand the invaluable work of frontline agencies supporting women and children targeted by domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. Since I became Minister, I have secured year-on-year increases in funding for Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence (DSGBV) services. The additional investment in these services this year facilitates better access and the provision of enhanced supports and services to victims."

The provision of once-off funding is also enhancing services in alignment with obligations under the Istanbul Convention, including:

enhancement of the national domestic violence helpline
delivery of training to frontline staff providing services
further roll-out of the Bodyright programme
delivery of support groups to victims of domestic violence
delivery of specialist services to minority groups with complex needs
provision of additional emergency refuge accommodation in Galway
evaluation of awareness and education programmes to young people

Continuing, Minister Zappone said:

“A whole of government response to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is required to ensure the delivery of co-ordinated services. Tusla is responsible for the provision of services and supports to victims of domestic and sexual violence. A number of other government departments and State agencies, including the Departments of Justice and Equality and Housing, Planning and Local Government, have a key role to play in ensuring holistic services are provided to victims of domestic and sexual violence."

ENDS

Notes to the Editor:

In 2019, funding of €25.3 million is being allocated to frontline services combating domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, an increase of €1.5 million over 2018.

In April 2019, the Minister announced that the additional funding would allow for:

an increase of 10% in funding to sexual violence services
12 additional outreach workers for women and children affected by domestic violence in identified areas of need, including Counties Carlow, Cork, Dublin, Galway and Wicklow
the national roll-out of a healing programme for children who have been impacted by domestic abuse
a reduction in waiting times for counselling for victims of sexual violence
the opening of a new domestic violence refuge in South Dublin
a strategic review of domestic violence accommodation

Progress includes:

(1) Increase in funding to sexual violence services

The 16 Rape Crisis Centres have received increases in funding and have agreed commitments in terms of additional service provision.

(2) Outreach workers

Considerable progress has been made to recruit additional outreach workers:

County Galway – 3 additional outreach workers will be recruited by year end
County Carlow – 1 outreach worker has been recruited and is in place, and another outreach worker will be in place by year end
County Cork – an outreach worker will be in place for the East/North Cork of Cork by year end
County Wicklow – a new outreach worker is in place and services have been operating since early 2019
County Dublin (Fingal/Balbriggan) – the new service in the Fingal/Balbriggan area is fully operational. Two counsellors from Dublin Rape Crisis Centre are working in the new service for three days per week along with two new outreach workers

(3) Healing programmes for children

The national co-ordination of children’s programmes is being hosted by Barnardos. To date, this year 8 children’s programmes (programmes range in size with approximately 5 to 10 children participating) have been delivered in 7 Tusla areas and planning is on-going to deliver children’s programmes in the remaining 10 Tusla areas by year end.

Data will be collected to gather evidence on the effectiveness of programmes which are being rolled out for children.

(4) Opening of a new refuge in South Dublin

The refurbishment of the building to provide refuge accommodation in Rathcoole, South Dublin will be completed by end October. The recruitment of staff for the refuge is underway and services are expected to be operational by year end.

The opening of this new refuge will provide additional domestic violence accommodation capacity (five units of emergency refuge family accommodation, which can accommodate up to five adults and 15 children).

(5) Strategic reviews of domestic violence accommodation in Dublin and nationally

The accommodation reviews are ongoing. The substantive work of the reviews will be completed by the end of 2019.

(6) Once-off funding in 2019

Once-off funding in 2019 is being used to support and enhance services in alignment with obligations under the Istanbul Convention.

The additional funding will also be used to:

enhance national domestic violence helpline (€72,000)
advance the training of front-line staff for the provision of specialist and outreach services in Cork (€20,000)
facilitate training to improve the response to victims of gender-based violence (€30,000)
support the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre’s roll out of the Bodyright Programme (€15,000)
support the delivery of support groups to victims of domestic violence:

(1) By early intervention which may prevent the need for emergency refuge accommodation

(2) Support when they leave emergency refuge accommodation, in Dublin, the South West, West and Midlands (€30,000)

support the extension of tailored DSGBV training in order to assist asylum seekers in direct provision centres who need to access specialist DSGBV services (€30,000)
facilitate the provision of new emergency refuge accommodation (nine family units) for women and children in Galway by end 2019 (€50,000)
project support for the implementation of the Safe House emergency accommodation development in West Cork (€20,000)
support current work on evaluating awareness and education programmes to young people (Manuela and Youth Research Project) and build on the available resources (€10,000)

Minister Zappone announces progress following additional €1.5 million investment in Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence Services

Notes to the Editor:

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