State enthusiasm for reforming women’s services has petered out
Since coming into power in 1997, its has left a trail of broken promises and stagnant policy initiatives.
Weeks before the 27th Dáil fell in 1997, Labour Party Minister of State Eithne Fitzgerald published the ambitious report of the Task Force on Violence Against Women. At the time she spoke of an abounding appetite for change.
“This report sends out a powerful signal from Government. It says loud and clear that our society unambiguously condemns and abhors violence against women.
“Services have developed in a piecemeal and relatively haphazard way rather than as a coordinated strategy.
“The separate services offered to women by different public and voluntary bodies need to be welded into a coherent set of supports.”
But the energy and enthusiasm for reform has petered out and the same fragmented sector remains. Hope has been replaced by a growing sense of frustration as the victims of rape, domestic violence and sexual violence become increasingly marginalised.
The figures couldn’t be more stark. More than 10,000 phone calls to a domestic violence helpline went unanswered last year.
Women’s Aid director Margaret Martin, in her annual plea for more funding, said all that was needed was €100,000 to ensure that victims seeking help would hear a voice at the end of the phone.
The figures from the Rape Crisis Network are even more frightening. Just 95 out of 335 people who sought counselling at the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) reported the crime to gardaí.
Its annual report found in 2005, the agency received the highest number of calls since it was established 25 years ago.
Of the 16,331 calls made, 12,244 were considered “genuine counselling calls,” an increase of 11% on 2004.
Yet the statistics are given scant recognition by various Government departments.
Five departments share responsibility, but their enthusiasm is reflected by their dwindling representation on the National Steering Committee on Violence Against Women.
In the early years of the committee all five would send Principal Officers to committee meetings. Nowadays, lesser grades of civil servant attend from the Department of Health and other departments regularly send nobody at all.
The NSC is supposed to meet four times a year but due to other commitments it has met once since June.
Mary Crilly of Cork Rape Crisis centre was on the original Task Force and today sits on the awareness raising sub-committee of the NSC. She said the impetus of ‘97 has been lost.
“When the first report came out there was so much excitement and enthusiasm, it really felt like what we were doing was really going to make a difference.
“Now there are regional committees which meet and there is supposed to be 15 people attending. You are lucky if you get six or seven who turn up.
“It needs a burst of energy, and it is time to take stock and see what went wrong.”
In its defence the Government points to the last budget and a €4.5 million increase in funding. However, for the past number of years the support sector has lobbied unsuccessfully for a €7m investment to bring it into line with 2002 levels.
Director of Women’s Aid Margaret Martin said this year’s money is welcome but it was only a once-off payment.
“For the past four years we have been so engrossed in trying to get funding levels back to the 2002 we have been dancing as fast as we can just to deliver services.
“Right across the sector a massive amount of energy was going out because the focus was on survival.”
Furthermore she said the money will not be effective unless it is backed by coherent political will.
“Unfortunately without really strong political commitment the best efforts of individual politicians and civil servants is lost. Unless you have people involved at the highest possible level of decision making, and that means at Cabinet level, then you are not going to get much done.”
For the past five years a full strategic review of the NSCVAW has been promised. Drafts have been prepared but nothing has emerged. It is just one of a string of documents and actions touted but not delivered since the ’97 watershed.
The National Women’s Strategy (NWS) had a draft consultation document published in 2002. It prompted 300 written submissions and attracted 1,000 people to local meetings.
An actual strategy has yet to be published instead its delivery dates were changed from 2003-2010 to the new target of 2006-2015. According to Minister of State, Frank Fahey it will now be released in April.
Its failure to emerge for the past five years has been a major gripe for the National Women’s Council of Ireland. Its director Joanna McMinn said from its impressions of the strategy people should not expect anything revolutionary.
“I think what the strategy is going to be is a document restating what is already in place and it will not be setting any new targets.
“For us the key things in terms of violence against women is the reform of the legal system, strengthened legislation, increased resources for front line services and there also needs to be training for key statutory agencies.”
By repeatedly pushing target dates into the future the Government is failing to meet its obligations under the Beijing declaration of 1995.
This international agreement contained 33 points in the section on violence against women alone. These included demands for specialist training courses and promises to fully fund shelters. Twelve years on that era of hope has given way to frustration.
Independent reviews of Ireland’s record are now available from both the UN and the European Council of Ministers.
The most telling evidence of the faltering momentum of the Government’s policy on violence against women is contained in the 2005 report of the Council of Ministers.
It was assessing the country’s commitment to the European pact on violence in the family. Although Ireland claimed to have a National Action Plan in place Europe was not convinced by references to the immediate aftermath of 1997.
“Although the [1997] report contains many and very specific recommendations it does not commit the government to any specific steps.
“There is no explicit government commitment to any measures suggested by the 1997 Task Force report.
“It must be noted that there seems to be no report later than 1999.”
This assessment was made in 2005 while the UN Committee on Eliminating all forms of Discrimination Against Women was outlining its 25 points of concern.
In the area of violence against women it said it was bothered about the country’s record on protecting migrant and Traveller women. Last year approximately 14% of reported victims were from outside Ireland.
Today, there is still no statutory funding available for translation services in refuges and help-lines.
And, despite an influx in migrant workers, female victims are especially vulnerable because they are not entitled to welfare if they leave their partners.
Director of the Rape Crisis Network Ireland Fiona Neary sits on the NSCVAW and said there is no political appetite for change.
“There is an absence of effective legislation so you have a strong NGO sector but there just isn’t commitment from the Government.
“There are individual civil servants isolated within departments who don’t have the resources to make a difference. The steering committee itself needs to be able to recruit staff who can drive a plan of work.”
Groups like the rape crisis network yearn for a focused plan of action. Instead their enthusiasm is dashed by a litany of scuppered projects.
Four years ago the department analysed the current and future needs of all women who experienced violence or the threat of violence. The Department was unhappy with this research and it was never published.
Last year, the NSCVAW completed a review of the commitment of various Government departments but this document it is not being made public.
The Government is no longer funding the European Women’s Observatory. In the past few years the EWO has produced research on violence against women and pornography but is now keeping going on voluntary energy.
The National Domestic Violence Intervention Agency, which attempted to bring a successful intervention model to Ireland, will close this week after fragmented funding dries up.
The NDVIA requested €3m to run an intervention model to help reform the problems in court cases but it has had to make do with €500,000 over the past three years.
However, the voices calling for change are silenced by their situation and they are virtually anonymous among the lobby groups vying for Government support.
They do not represent an organised voting block and they are pushed to the bottom of the list of priorities. In the recent National Development Plan, the sentences making reference to violence against women and gender equality were in the last paragraphs on a 213-page list of investment policies.
As each group closes and research projects are shelved welfare groups say valuable expertise is being lost.
Director of the National Network of Women’s Refuges and Support Services Sharon O’Halloran said its 40 member groups have been decimated by extended periods of frozen funding.
“Recruiting into the sector is a big problem, in fairness who wants to work in a sector where there is no security and in most case can only just about pay the minimum wage.”
The last two national pay deals had promises to properly fund the sector instead Ms O’Halloran said the other social benefits led to a haemorrhaging of personnel.
“Benchmarking was a big deal for us, we lost loads of people when that came in because our funding was capped and we just could not meet it. So people left and they were not replaced.”
The Government trumpets its continued investment in awareness raising which will see a 33% increase in funding over the next three years.
Groups say because this is not being backed by a desire to introduce systems-change raising awareness is creating false hope.
Ms Martin of Women’s Aid said to be effective the awareness raising should aim to increase knowledge in specific areas of work.
These include goals for improving the sensitivities of the police, the judiciary and social services with measurable goals for each area.
However it is these actual targets that the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat coalition has been at pains to avoid.
This ambivalence allows it to duck out of its responsibilities and leaves a well-meaning, but fractured, support sector holding the baby for women’s welfare.
April 1997
Following hundreds of submissions, the Report of the Task Force on Violence Against Women is launched. The Government promised a blueprint for change, finally facing up to the issues of violence against women.
Vast majority of recommendations never implemented.
After signing up to 1995 Beijing Declaration, Government in a submission to the UN, commits to developing a protocol on treating victims of violence.
The Department of Health has still to draw up an official policy on domestic violence despite separate recommendations by the National Crime Council in 2005.
Justice Minister John O’Donoghue says the Government will establish a single crisis telephone number for all female victims of violence which would have the resources to refer people in danger to appropriate services.
It has yet to be set up.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern launches Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. Commits to putting structures in place to implement the recommendations of the Task Force report.
Review never took place.
Minister of State Mary Wallace again commits in the Dáil to setting up national crisis helpline for women.
It never happened.
Minister of State Mary Wallace launches the Draft National Plan for Women promising increased percentage of women in the decision-making public service posts.
Also increased funding to tackle violence against women.
Within a year Minister Wallace moved to different portfolio. The plan has never moved beyond the draft stage.
Justice Minister John O’Donoghue says a review of how domestic violence was recorded was needed during a North/South conference.
The Northern system has undergone widespread reform. However, here the gardaí no longer collect extensive data.
Ireland signs up to EU recommendations on protection of women and agrees to encourage all bodies dealing with violence to draw up action plans.
Gardaí only State institution with a written policy on domestic violence.
Minister of State Willie O’Dea publishes the Government’s report to the UN and a consultation document on the National Strategy for Women 2003-2010, which he says will be used as a blueprint for policy.
Three years later, the UN committee criticised the Government for failing to make substantial progress on women’s equality and safety. The National Strategy for Women has still to be published.
Minister of State Willie O’Dea promises a review of the Domestic Violence Act.
Key changes to protect women never happened.
The 2003-2005 Sustaining Progress partnership deal included specific promise to complete the National Women’s Strategy in its lifetime. It also promised to adopt measures to prevent violence, including added supports within the health and social services.
The strategy has still to see the light of day.
In its fourth and fifth reports to the UN, the Government promises to publish a report on the needs of women who have experienced domestic violence, rape or sexual assault by the end of 2003.
This research was never published.
Following a series of articles in the Irish Examiner, Minister of State Tim O’Malley said the Department of Health would ensure there was adequate funding for victims of rape. The commitment was repeated in 2005 by Health Minister Mary Harney who said funding for all services would be brought under one department.
Funding cap was only partially lifted in Budget 2007 but the streamlining of responsibility never happened.
Promise
Oireachtas Committee agrees to seek extra funding for frontline services dealing with violence against women by €7 million a year and to ensure a coordinated response to funding instead of the ad-hoc system.
Funding increased by €4.5m in December 2006. Same ad-hoc system is still in place.
Minister of State Frank Fahey says the Government will face up to the challenges contained in the National Crime Council study of domestic violence.
Response was to be included in a plan to be drawn up as part of the “strategic plan” of the National Steering Committee on Violence Against Women.
Plan never drawn up. Almost all of the recommendations contained in the report ignored.
Minister Fahey tells Seanad debate that Garda would publish details of a review of its domestic violence policy and would hone its response.
The review never emerged. The latest Garda annual report once again failed to include any details of incidents of domestic violence and arrests.
Minister Fahey tells another Seanad debate on domestic violence that the garda review was under way.
No report has been published.
Government promises to publish National Women’s Strategy early in 2007.
Government postpones publication until later this year.
