Proposals to set up a national agency to combat domestic violence are to be brought to Government shortly, Minister of State for Justice Frank Fahey has pledged.
Mr Fahey said the agency would incorporate all the offices and agencies involved in dealing with domestic violence, to ensure the "development of a well co-ordinated whole of Government response" to such violence.
The Minister however rejected calls from Women's Aid to remove the residency requirement in the Domestic Violence Acts, under which partners must establish a period of cohabitation.
Mr Fahey said this request had not been met by successive governments because of legal difficulties. "The position remains that there are no proposals to extend the civil law policy of existing legislation to non-domestic abusive relationships", but these were subject to sanction under criminal law, he said.
"We must never lose sight of this fact that domestic violence is a very heinous crime" and those that commit such violence should be punished severely, he said.
Mr Fahey was speaking during a Private Members' motion introduced by Sinn Féin's justice spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh, calling for "an effective sanctioning system" for the perpetrators of domestic violence.
The motion also called for law enforcement agencies to "prioritise the prosecution of domestic violence crimes on indictment where possible rather than simply as breaches of order".
Mr Ó Snodaigh also demanded the variation in Garda practice in dealing with domestic violence be addressed and that policy be "monitored, supported and applied consistently. Garda practice varies from doing it properly through to nothing more than asking an offender to go for a walk to cool off or sending a woman home from the station to sort things out with her husband herself. Who would ever dream of telling someone who walks into a station reporting a common assault to go find the stranger who mugged them and sort it out themselves?"
He called for a revision of the Garda policing plan for 2007 to "explicitly name domestic violence and sexual violence as policing priorities".
Mr Ó Snodaigh said Ministers only posed as though they were tough on the issue "because women and children and men are being beaten in their homes tonight and very little is being done about it. This Government has failed to treat crimes of domestic violence with the priority they require," he added.
"Any man who lifts his hand and abuses a woman, be it verbally or physically is nothing but a coward and a bully," said Martin Ferris (SF, Kerry North). "More importantly there is an onus on the Government to bring in legislation where protection will be to the forefront."
Paudge Connolly (Ind, Cavan-Monaghan) pointed out that women do not avail of therapeutic services, particularly for their children.
"The tragedy is that they need the consent of both parents before they can access services. I can't see a violent father allowing his children to receive counselling to learn how to cope with his violence."
The consent of one parent in such a situation should be sufficient, he said.
