Budget 2022 fails to address endemic levels of gender-based violence

Unlike Covid-19, domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence is not a problem we can live with. The Government must significantly increase their expenditure on helping already under-resourced services to stop it

Over the past two years, an under-resourced network of frontline domestic violence services responded to 19 new women and three new children daily.

Given the societal, economic and political challenges our country faces, Budget 2022 may have been the most anticipated budget since the recession.

Responses to budget details revealed so far have largely focused on the pandemic, healthcare, and the climate and housing crises. Which begs the pertinent question — has gender-based violence fallen off the radar once again?

The relentless pervasiveness of domestic violence/coercive control, sexual violence, and more recently, femicide, familicide, and infanticide in Ireland, is well established. Following the exacerbation of domestic violence/coercive control during Covid-19 lockdowns, the Programme for Government acknowledged the problem for the first time.

More recently, the Taoiseach responded to atrocities such as Nadine Lott’s murder by vowing to "root out the scourge" of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence). However, this promise is not reflected in Budget 2022. 

In other words, little has changed.

Understanding the resources required to translate policy commitments into concrete actions is a fundamental part of ensuring that domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is comprehensively addressed. Given the Irish evidence gap, the Government has, to date, relied upon extrapolation from a 2006 European study, suggesting that domestic violence/coercive control costs Ireland €2.2bn annually in policing, health bills, lost productivity and court proceedings.

To address the gap, our 2021 NUI Galway and Safe Ireland study has established a range of indicative individual/household costs due to domestic violence/coercive control in Ireland. We estimate an aggregate cost of €113,475 per woman or a total of €5,673,732 across the study sample. 

This equates to a national indicative cost of €56bn over approximately 20.5 years or at least €2.7bn each year, excluding government expenditure on prevention and service provision.

Comparing the annual figures from the European and Irish studies, while accounting for the wider scope of the European research, it is clear that the Government has been operating on the basis of a significant underestimation of resource requirements.

Despite a series of parliamentary questions, the full budgetary allocation for domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services is not readily accessible. What is clear is that the resources allocated are grossly inadequate, particularly given the crippling funding cuts endured by services due to the financial crisis, while they experienced a surge in service access. 

Lack of resources

The past 18 months have seen a similar surge in demand. Despite a broad understanding of the dynamics fuelling domestic violence/coercive control, the Government was unprepared for the spike in cases that accompanied the advent of lockdown policies. 

Though they subsequently provided additional funding to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence organisations, among other actions, it was not based on an assessment of the resources required for a robust response.

In 2020, there were 57,277 calls to local and national violence helplines; 23,785 incidents reported to gardaí; and 4,000 breaches of protective orders. The first line of support for women and children is immediate access to protective services to mitigate risk of further or escalating harm. 

At a minimum, this includes pathways to information; judicial protection; therapeutic supports; and safe accommodation.

Over the past two years, an under-resourced network of frontline domestic violence services responded to 19 new women and three new children daily. With only 144 refuge spaces available across the country, there were unmet requests for refuge from 1,351 women between March and August 2020.

The findings of our costing research establish a firm foundation for understanding the far-reaching economic costs of domestic violence/coercive control, as well as providing preliminary evidence to help inform the budgetary allocations required to address this endemic problem. Such knowledge is crucial for meeting our Istanbul Convention commitments.

Safe Ireland’s pre-budget submission called for increases in core funding for frontline services to meet demand; capital investment in refuge, Safe-at-Home-Sanctuary schemes and transitional housing; allocations for training and evidence-based research; financing for the mobilisation of community-led responses; and expenditure commitments for national policy and service integration.

None of these proposals have been given an expenditure-line in Budget 2022.

In No Going Back, Safe Ireland also highlighted the need for measures such as a dedicated minister and ministry for domestic, sexual and gender-based violence; policy and services in the same central Government location; and an urgent prevention strategy. Given the strong links between employment, social protection and violence, the dedicated ministry must be seen as the coordinating body across other departments such as Employment and Social Protection.

To realise these critical measures, we need an innovative and sustainable fiscal plan that is underpinned by a long-term vision, whereby current investment would yield future savings, as highlighted by a domestic abuse study in Vietnam.

When discussing DSGBV, we often speak of holding perpetrators to account. But who holds the government to account? Promises made must translate into immediate and sufficient resource allocation. 

Unlike Covid-19, DSGBV is not a problem we can live with. The government must significantly increase their expenditure on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence if we are to have a concrete chance of addressing and, ideally, eradicating this ongoing problem.

- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.

• Caroline Forde and Nata Duvvury – Centre for Global Women’s Studies, NUI Galway 
• Mary McDermott and Miriam Kivlehan – Safe Ireland