Ms Orla Muldoon:

I wish to enter the debate even if other people are more reluctant. There is a great deal of evidence that the impact of trauma can be seen as a type of learning impact. It is not necessarily changes in pathways in the brain, as neuroscientists would tell us, but also that trauma can motivate us to learn or not learn particular ways of being. The trauma we are discussing in this context can make girls who experience or view domestic violence believe that this is acceptable behaviour and that this is women's lot in life and it can make men think that this is the best way in which they can keep their wife in line. These are not entirely incompatible with the two positions that might be seen as being opposite. One can put a neuroscientific explanation for it or one can put a more social level explanation for it. Either way, a key part of the prevention must be making sure that children understand, or somebody somewhere tells them, that these behaviours, where they see them as normative in the family home, are not acceptable and that it is not acceptable to treat others like this or to be treated like this. At present, we do not do that.