Ms Margaret Martin:

We would like us to meet that bar. One of the things that gives me heart is the fact that we have ratified the Istanbul convention. It provides a really positive framework for addressing an issue like this. It has four pillars that are all very important. There is the issue of prevention and the work that has to happen, including training, awareness, and the work that happens in schools; and the issue of protection, the Garda and the refuges. The part that is very inadequate is the whole issue of prosecutions and penalties. We are doing a sentencing watch to look at this. There are a lot of men who are repeat offenders. They have left one partner, who has escaped, and they have moved on to another partner. They are very dangerous. The expertise of the Garda has increased to some extent in realising that. It needs to be addressed much more seriously. We also need a strong-arm approach in the context of monitoring. While the legislation that we have may look very effective and is extremely welcome, we need more than just the recipe for the cake. We need to be able to eat the cake as well. Unfortunately while we can see that a lot of this is working, it is not dropping down to the ground. There are women still sleeping in cars. Women are couch surfing. Women have had to move their kids. We were seeing this before we had a homelessness crisis; the committee can imagine how much more compounded the problem is now.