Cuan’s Functions

Cuan > Cuan’s Functions

Cuan was established in February 2024 under the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Act 2023. The Act sets out a range of statutory functions for Cuan:

• Delivering excellent services to victims of DSGBV, including delivering on the number of safe and accessible accommodation spaces available, as well as ensuring that helpline and other supports are available to anyone requiring them.
• Putting in place a robust set of national service standards and governance arrangements to ensure adherence to the appropriate standards for such supports.
• Leading on consistent and ongoing research to inform DSGBV policy development, working with others such as the CSO who have data projects underway.
• Leading on awareness-raising campaigns designed to reduce the incidence of DSGBV in Irish society as well as ensuring that all victims know how to access the supports, they require.
• Coordinating all Government actions set out in the Third National Strategy and reporting on their delivery to the Minister for Justice. Political oversight of the strategy will be provided by the Cabinet Committee on Social Affairs and Equality.

Cuan delivers on its statutory remit via the work of its five core agency functions:

Service Delivery and Development

Taking over from Tusla and the Department of Justice, Cuan coordinates the administration of over €51 million in funding of 78 DSGBV organizations nationwide, working both in service provision and prevention.

In line with the legislation, Cuan has begun work on putting in place systems and governance arrangements to fund services and report on service data. This is critical to informing the development of National Service Development Plans.

A key action of the Zero Tolerance Strategy is the doubling of refuge space numbers available during the lifetime of the Strategy. Cuan has a dedicated team in place to support the development of domestic violence refuges, and is actively working with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to assist with the development of refuge facilities in the priority areas identified in the Third National Strategy. Important progress has been made in 2024, including the opening of a state of the art domestic violence refuge in Wexford in September 2024.

Strategic Engagement and Policy Coordination

A core function of Cuan is the coordination of Government actions set out in the Third National Strategy and reporting on their delivery to the Minister for Justice.

In April 2024, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has published a targeted 2024 implementation plan for delivery of Zero Tolerance, which identifies 119 actions across the plan’s four pillars of Policy Coordination, Prevention, Protection and Prosecution.

Cuan’s Strategic Engagement team is in active engagement with the Plan’s 18 lead departments and agencies to track progress, and is developing a structured approach to monitoring and reporting.

Cuan will be working to strengthen and increase the number of departments, bodies, agencies and organisations working on Zero Tolerance.

Communications, Campaigns and Education

One of Cuan’s core functions is to lead on awareness-raising campaigns designed to reduce the incidence of DSGBV in Irish society as well as ensuring that all victims know how to access the supports they require.

Cuan’s Communications, Campaigns and Education Team coordinate the planning and delivery of these campaigns, as well as coordinating the wider communications and public relations functions of the Agency. The team also coordinates and supports the Agency’s education remit.

More information is available here on current DSGBV campaigns.

Research and Data

Research and data are integral to providing an evidence base for strategy implementation.

Cuan is in the process of establishing its research and data function, and of developing the Agency’s research strategy.

The Research and Data team has already partnered with Research Ireland to fund a dedicated strand on the 2024 COALESCE funding call to provide opportunities for researchers to bring forward excellent research on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.

Governance and Corporate Services

All the above work is supported by Cuan’s Governance and Corporate Services team, who coordinate human resources, finance, operations and ensure adherence to the agency’s corporate governance and other statutory obligations.