Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-20
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an gceist phráinneach seo a ardú. Aontaím léi go bhfuil an méid foréigean i gcoinne ban sa tír seo uafásach. I thank the Deputy for raising this extremely important issue.
What we witnessed yesterday in terms of the revelations in the court case involving Paul Moody was quite shocking and horrendous and the level of abuse evident in that case made for extremely difficult hearing and reading. Equally shocking are the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre's reports on the use of its national helpline. It was contacted 24,000 times, a 5.5% increase on the previous year, and its annual report outlines unprecedented levels of demand.
As the Deputy, in fairness, acknowledged, over the past three or four years, there has been a sea-change in how the Government has approached this issue in terms of the establishment of Cuan, for which funding now is approximately €80 million, sustaining support for front-line services and accelerating delivery of safe accommodation, with a commitment to provide 280 safe spaces by the end of 2026. Legislatively, the Minister is continuing to introduce various legislation, for example, Jennie's law for a domestic violence register; Valerie's law for the removal of guardianship rights of those convicted of killing partners; and laws to restrict the disclosure of counselling notes in sexual assault court cases. The Minister is pushing the outer limits of legislation to give protection to women and to deal with this. That is real, tangible progress across funding, legislation, prevention and victim support, but we will continue to strengthen those supports for victims and survivors.
The domestic violence travel supplement will, I understand, be introduced by the Minister for Social Protection this month, providing free travel when referred by a Cuan-registered agency.
I will ask both Ministers to work with the Deputy in terms of any additional funding or ring-fencing funding for any specific purposes. We are open to any constructive proposals on that.
We have modernised the legal framework to better protect victims. The engagement of the Family Courts Act 2024, the Criminal Justice Act 2020-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-20