The Council of Europe has identified a number of issues where urgent improvement is needed on violence against women in Ireland.
The Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence - also known as GREVIO - has published its first report evaluating Ireland's implementation of the "Istanbul Convention".
It says that policies and support services have overlooked or not sufficiently addressed some serious forms of violence against women.
In 2019, Ireland ratified the international treaty to tackle violence against women and domestic violence known as the Istanbul Convention.
In its baseline evaluation report, GREVIO has found a number of areas where compliance needs to be improved including in the area of data collection
It says official figures do not provide an overall picture of the prevalence of domestic violence and other forms of violence against women, describing them as "insufficient, disjointed and incomparable".
It also noted that the legal obligation for therapy and counselling notes of victims to be disclosed in court also discouraged them from coming forward and has pointed out that one third of the state lacked specialist shelters for victims of domestic violence.
The report does highlight a series of positive measures taken by Irish authorities in recent years, including the introduction of a number of pieces of legislation that aim to protect victims and the Zero Tolorance strategy to tackle domestic, sexual and gender based violence.
In January this year, a European Council delegation visited Ireland to assess the country on how it was preventing and combating domestic violence under the Istanbul Convention.
Two members of the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) Aleid Van den Brink and Päivi Maarit Hirvelä were joined by UK Barrister Maria Moodie and Francesca Montagna, who is an Administrator at the Secretariat of the monitoring mechanism of the Istanbul Convention.
The Irish authorities had already submitted their "State report" in September last year, so the delegation had some information in advance.
The group set about meeting with a wide range of governmental and non-governmental representatives working in the area of preventing and combating violence against women. It was a busy timetable.
During the five day visit GREVIO met with 11 National Bodies including Government department representatives and An Garda Síochána; nine public bodies, including The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Courts Service, and 19 non-governmental organisations, civil society and lawyers.
The final report has welcomed the "positive momentum" generated in Ireland immediately before after the Istanbul Convention was ratified in 2019 and has noted the adoption of a number of pieces of legislation as well as the third National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.
The report is extensive and notes a number of areas that need to be addressed.
It pointed out that Ireland is significantly lagging behind in the area of data collection, which means official figures in the area of domestic violence and violence against women are "insufficient, disjointed and incomparable".
Therefore, there is no overall picture of the prevalence of domestic violence and other forms of violence against women.
It also highlights that the legal obligation to disclose therapy and counselling notes in court also discourages victims from coming forward and seeking the help they need, whilst hampering the core work of women's rights organisations.
Moreover, the report underlines that one third of the State lacks specialist shelters for victims of domestic violence, ultimately meaning that victims may find themselves with no option but to remain at home with the perpetrator.
GREVIO has also identified serious shortcomings related to custody and visitation decisions concerning families affected by domestic violence and highlights insufficient training, victim-blaming attitudes and the trivialisation of domestic violence among some judges and the police.
In conclusion, it says it is necessary to bridge the gap between "the progressive policies and legislation that Ireland has enacted and the reality on the ground".
The report highlights a series of positive measures taken by the Irish authorities in recent years, including the adoption of the Criminal Justice Female Genital Mutilation Act of 2012, the Domestic Violence Act of 2018 and the Criminal Law Sexual Offences Act of 2017.
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has also announced tougher laws to manage and monitor sex offenders in the community come into effect today.
The Sex Offenders (Amendment) Act 2023 provides for the court to prohibit a sex offender from working with children, and allows An Garda Síochána to disclose information relating to persons on the sex offender register where there is a serious risk to the public.
The Zero Tolerance Strategy which was launched by the Government last year, contains targets that seek to address many of the issues raised in the GREVIO report, including the establishment of a statutory DSGBV agency which will begin its work early next year.
