Ms Nora Owen:

May I add to that? Regarding Tigray, there is a programme being run by Trócaire, our Irish agency, whereby it is spending €400,000 to provide specialised gender-based violence response and GBV risk mitigation services, so we are in there. Also, Ireland was the first country at the UN to raise the issue of Tigray and the first to get a press statement out condemning what was going on with the allegations, as Dr. Kilroy said, of human rights violations and sexual violence, trying to bring those responsible to justice. We have also raised this at Security Council discussions, and on 12 April Ireland convened an informal briefing with the UN special representative on sexual violence, Ms Pramila Patten. Ireland has a very long connection with Ethiopia. I travelled with the Oireachtas committee I chaired to Ethiopia at the time of the 1984 famine. Ethiopia really progressed after that famine and built its country up, and it is tragic for somebody like me and others who have been there to see these difficulties arising now. I point out to the committee that no matter what country we talk about, sexual and gender-based violence seems to be a pandemic in many of those countries and is being used as a tool of war or conflict. We must be aware of that and we can raise it every time and at every forum as an issue for the protection of people.

We have been through most of what Senator O'Reilly has asked. As for the masculinities issue, very early on in our group we got somebody in to talk to us, on the recommendation of Mr. Dhala, if I remember correctly, about masculinities. Trócaire and Concern, two of the Irish agencies, have been doing work in this area in order that boys and young men recognise their responsibilities. We also have to talk about our own boys and young men here. They have a responsibility to be careful how they behave and how they treat the girls and young women in their lives.

Senator Craughwell referred to an issue in the Army whereby a person who cannot take an overseas posting may end up being posted elsewhere in Ireland. That is being examined now to see if we can make the Defence Forces more gender-friendly and family-friendly, just as the Oireachtas - the Seanad and the Dáil - is struggling with and constantly discussing making its working conditions more family-friendly.