THE Government has allocated £1 million to address the priorities identified in a report by the Task Force on Violence Against Women which has outlined a national strategy on the problem.
Recommendations include the provision of operating costs and seed funding for new women's refuges and the extension of the national help line, operated by Women's Aid, to a 24 hour, seven day a week service.
There will be in service training of service providers including nurses, gardai, refuge workers, counsellors, GPs and other health care workers.
It will help provide in service training for community based supports, including personal development opportunities.
It also proposes developing, monitoring and evaluating intervention programmes for men who assault their wives.
Funding is expected to increase access to accredited counselling services in each health board area for women and their children who cannot afford such services.
Other priorities from the 100 recommendations include the publication and distribution of information packs and leaflets, and core funding for Coolock Community Law Centre for a pilot project providing a dedicated legal service on domestic violence linked to a refuge.
The Tanaiste, Mr Spring, welcomed the report and said violence against women was an issue for both genders. There was a need to ensure that society did not minimise the seriousness of violence in the family generally or perpetrated by a woman's husband or partner, he said.
The report set out a national strategy on violence against women, he said. It provided a framework for coordinating the work of health boards, the Garda and other public agencies with those of voluntary organisations.
The Government, he said, endorsed the findings of the task force and had asked for an examination of the recommendations in detail with a view to implementing them.
He announced the setting up of a National Steering Committee and Regional Planning Committees to ensure that violence remained on the agenda and that women could find support, advice and assistance in their own localities.
The Minister of State at the office of the Tanaiste, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, said the overriding concern of the task force was the personal safety of women. The policies were aimed at ensuring that official Garda policy, which was to arrest the offender, was fully understood and operated consistently in every station in the State.
The task force also wanted to ensure that an assaulted woman could remain in her home with her children and could be confident the law would guarantee they lived safely in their own homes.
She said the report has recommended additional refuges be built in west Dublin, south Leinster, in Mayo and in the Border area.
"Breaking the silence around domestic violence is not easy and it is important that when women disclose what is happening they are listened to and believed and that the public services are in a position to offer practical help and an assurance of safety."