Special Report

More than €350m has been allocated to Government strategy to tackle domestic, gender and sexual based violence. It is the Government’s “most ambitious” plan to date, and the third such plan since 2010.

Among the measures included is an increase in the number of refuge places from 141 to more than 280. e maximum sentence for assault causing harm, one of the most common o ences in domestic abuse cases, will double from ve to 10 years.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee says the plan is a culmination of two years of work, with much consultation involved. e plan is “zerotolerance” and a whole of society approach to change and ensuring no one turns “a blind eye” to violence.

“It means not turning a blind eye when abuse happens, just because it’s behind closed doors or in a relationship,” the Minister says.

“It means not laughing o inappropriate comments or touching, whether it’s in person or WhatsApp group, but it also means getting right back to teaching younger people what a healthy relationship is,” Ms McEntee says.

“It’s really detailed. We’re working on some of them already. And we are working on many of them after today, but really excited to be nally launching it this afternoon.” e Minister will be working with Tusla directly prior to any agency being set up as part of this plan. e strategy is viewed as ambitious because of the level of support Minister McEntee has secured from numerous departments, state-funded organisations and NGOs. e four pillars on which it will be rolled out will be protection, prevention, prosecution and policy coordination.

While the strategy is over ve years, the minister is proposing initial 18-month implementation plan, which will include 144 actions with set timelines.

A statutory agency will be established by January 2024 as part of the wider strategy.

In relation to the establishment of a statutory tree agency Minister McEntee said: “We have set a timeline of 18 months. at obviously involves working with the sector, working with those who understand and know this space as to how we establish it in the best way possible.

“It means going through legislation and obviously all of that takes time.”

Opposition parties have expressed concern over the number of refuge places being made available.

Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall says that the new plan will still fall short of what is required under the Istanbul Convention, although she welcomes the strategy as whole.

People Before Pro t’s Bríd Smith also says that the provision of domestic violence refuge places is

Chief Executive of Women’s Aid Sarah Benson says her organisation “applauds the ambition” of the plan, but it has long wanted a dedicated centralised focus in Government to tackle, not just the service provision or the policy, but also that co-ordinated policy piece.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, she praised Ms McEntee, who she said, along with her colleagues, has done “incredible hard work to get it to where it is now”. e CEO of the O aly Domestic Violence Service has welcomed the doubling of refuge spaces over the next ve years and the extension of spaces to every county.

Anne Clarke, a board member of Safe Ireland, said it is extremely di cult to get people into refuges and then move them into private accommodation.

She explained that there are nine counties that do not have any emergency accommodation and that victims of domestic violence are not inclined to move counties.

Ms Clarke said that this means that unfortunately the majority of people stay.

She said: “ ey make decisions around their children. ey won’t want to take their children out of school.

“ ey won’t want to take children away from support networks and extracurricular.

“So it’s extremely di cult then to mitigate against risk for that person who is in that serious abusive relationship.”

Ms Clarke said doubling the maximum sentence for assault causing harm is hugely signi cant and she hoped that these would prove to be a game changer for domestic abuse victims.

SPECIAL REPORT €350m plan in new strategy to tackle head on domestic and gender violence

The Covid-19 chief who left school at 16

At age 16, Paul Reid left school early and started working as a trainee installer with Eircom. He has now announced he will reign at Christmas from one of the top-paid public sector jobs in the country.

Mr Reid’s resignation as HSE chief executive two years before the end of his contract has seen him become the latest in a series of senior managers to exit the health service in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. e news may not come as a major surprise, as back in 2020 he told the Irish Examiner that he has “never been interested in a job for life”.

Now that he is leaving the role, which has an annual pay package of over €400,000, Mr Reid says he has “no immediate career plans”. e pandemic shoved Mr Reid into the national spotto director of operations at Eircom.

Staying ‘objective’

After leaving the company in 2010 he worked as head of corporate a airs for Trócaire, chief operations o cer at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and then as chief executive of Fingal County Council, before taking up his HSE post. ough the Finglas, north Dublin man has said he copes with pressure by staying “objective” rather than becoming “personally immersed” in his work, in many ways his background and family life has shaped his managerial style.

He has spoken about how the sudden death of his brother, Noel, 16 years ago after he su ered heart failure abroad, has taught him to “keep things in perspective” in times of high intensity.

He previously told the Irish Examiner that he has stayed grounded because he saw a lot of his school friends “go the wrong way” through “drugs, alcohol, suicide, and mental health issues”.

“We can all travel di erent paths very easily,” he said.

At the age of 21, Mr Reid’s life almost did take a di erent path: As a father of one who was studying nights, he pulled out of running for election as a member of the Workers’ Party at the last minute.

Since then he has ruled out life in public o ce, and though it doesn’t seem likely that he will retire, Mr Reid said he plans to focus on spending time with family.

His son Glynn works for Facebook in Texas where he lives with wife Lindsay and their young daughter Aisling.

At the height of the pandemic, Mr Reid said that regular FaceTime calls with them kept him going.

Closer to home, his daughter Ciara, who is in her early thirties and works with children with special needs, lives in Dublin.

Mr Reid has been married to his wife Margaret for 37 years and says she’s been “hugely supportive” of his career. ey travel back and forth between Dublin and their summer house in Leitrim, where he is wellknown on the golf course.

As chief executive of the HSE, he dealt with multiple waves of Covid-19 and the impact of the cyberattack. However, the criticism the health service now faces over the state of emergency departments, the revelation that 46 children su ered harm at the hands of Kerry mental health services, and criticism of their long-term strategy will doubtlessly be markers of his legacy too.