Bacik calls for establishment of Safe Fund to protect survivors of domestic abuse

• Fund would provide fast financial support to people escaping abuse
• Calls for reform of family courts
• Abusers must not be accommodated within ranks of An Garda Siochana

Labour leader Ivana Bacik TD urged the Taoiseach to introduce Labour’s proposed €3mn Safe Fund for victims of survivors of domestic abuse.

As the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre yesterday reported record numbers contacting its helpline, Deputy Bacik urged Government to act to ensure that no victim should be forced to choose between violence and destitution.

Speaking during Leaders’ Questions, Deputy Bacik said:

“Every week brings shocking new statistics and stories about the levels of domestic and sexual violence against women in our country. It’s four months since I first raised with the Taoiseach the treatment of former Garda Margaret Loftus and her courage in telling her story of coercive control.

“Yet, as reported in the Examiner on the 8th of May, her former husband remains a member of the force, even after pleading guilty to assaulting her. This is shameful and sends the wrong message to survivors of abuse. I called on the Taoiseach directly in the Dáil today to ensure that abusers are not accommodated within the ranks of An Garda Siochana.

“We cannot have institutions of the State failing to protect and support survivors.

“Garda figures show that more than one thousand domestic abuse reports are being made a week. That means that since I last raised Margaret Loftus’s case with the Taoiseach, there have been eighteen-thousand reports of domestic abuse. And we know that official statistics represent a fraction of the true scale.

“Because nearly 40% of victims surveyed by the Garda Inspectorate said they did not report the most recent abuse they suffered. Consistently, about half of those who did report abuse said they were dissatisfied with how they were treated.

“That is why today I have made an urgent policy call to the Taoiseach that comes from women. The housing crisis and cost of living crises are increasingly trapping victims in dangerous homes, with dangerous abusers.  Many victims simply cannot afford to leave and their abusers know this.

“Labour Women have proposed a €3 million Safe Fund for victim-survivors of domestic abuse.

“It is a practical, immediate measure to provide fast, financial support to people escaping abuse. It is not means-tested. It would provide help when it’s needed, recognising that victims can have only a small window of opportunity to escape.

“Frontline organisations – Women’s Aid, the Rape Crisis Centre –  tell us again and again that financial insecurity traps people in violent homes. Freedom from violence should not be a luxury. No one should ever have to choose between violence and destitution. No one should have to remain in danger because they cannot afford to leave.

“Domestic abuse is a national emergency. Labour’s Safe Fund would be a step in the right direction to provide frontline support to women who are experiencing domestic violence. More must be done, including preventing the disclosure of counselling notes in trials, and reforming the family court system which is failing victims and survivors of abuse.”