Tusla – Child and Family Agency has a statutory mandate around care and protection to victims of domestic, sexual and gender based violence. In fulfilling this mandate and in line with the Tusla Corporate Plan which sets out to design and deliver supportive, coordinated and evidence-informed services that strive to ensure positive outcomes for children, families and communities’, we need to ensure that the Agency and its partners, have a shared and well-developed understanding of service user needs. This Working Report is the first output from Tusla presenting data from Tusla-funded specialist services for victims of domestic, sexual and gender based violence in Ireland. The report sets this data in the context of some of the messages emerging from other sources of information. Although the data here does not tell the full story of the adults, children and families who have experienced the trauma of violence in the home and sexual violence, the figures indicate the large number of victims and survivors who sought and received support in 2015 from specialist domestic, sexual and gender based violence services across the country. The figures indicate the large number of victims and survivors who sought and received support in 2015 from specialist domestic, sexual and gender based violence services across the country. Although the data here does not tell the full story of the adults, children and families who have experienced the trauma of violence in the home and sexual violence. Forthcoming international policy requirements such as the ‘EU Victims Directive’ and ‘Istanbul Convention’ (Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence) will place obligations for Tusla to be in a position to report on the quantum and quality of service provision. We are mindful that information gathering developments in Tusla, and those supported by Tusla in collaboration with others, are only part of the jigsaw of evidence required nationally to enable fuller understanding and better insights into statutory and other responses that will have the greatest positive impact for victims and preventing these forms of violence. Engagement with service users and information about those who do not use funded specialist services are important additional sources of information not reflected in the current report. Some of the data emerging prompt more questions about the stories that are of victims, and require further consideration – such as why certain groups are under or over-represented amongst service users and how we interpret different patterns of service use. We hope that the valuable commentary and feedback arising from this report and the underlying data, will enable Tusla to work with service provider organisations to improve data quality and will help to translate this data into evidence that can underpin responses to adults, children and families affected by domestic, sexual and gender based violence.