Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of our guests for coming in today. Every month, I have been trying to keep the women who have died through male violence in our thinking today and not just after the death of Ashling Murphy. I have taken the opportunity, therefore, to read their names into the record at different opportunities in January, February and March. Today is an appropriate day if the Chair gives me the time to do it, as it will give me a little more time to describe some of the circumstances. It is so important to remember much of what we are trying to do here.

There were 23 women who died in the month of April because of male violence going back to 1997. They include Noeleen Cawley, aged 39, a mother of five who was stabbed to death by her husband; Anne Shorthall, aged 47, who was bludgeoned to death by a man that she knew; Joan Casey, aged 64, who died from a gunshot wound arising from male violence; Catherine Smart, aged 57, who died after an assault from a man she was living with; and Bernie Sherry, aged 44, who was shot twice by her ex-partner. They also include Irene White, aged 43, who was stabbed in her home; Emer O’Loughlin, aged 23, who was stabbed by her neighbour; Joan McCarthy, aged 47, who was strangled in her home; Rose Patterson, aged 30, who was stabbed by the father of her son; and Alison White, aged 13, who was murdered by a stranger. They also include Janet Cheney, aged 47, who was killed by her partner of 18 years; Anne Marie Duffin, aged 39, who was stabbed by a friend of her eldest son; Diane Burroughs, aged 30, who was strangled in her flat by her ex-partner; Jennifer Doonan, aged 42, who was strangled by her 20-year-old son and Joan Vickers, aged 43, who was stabbed to death in her home by her husband. They also include Mary Hannon, aged 59, who was stabbed by her long-term partner in their home; Ciara Dunne, aged 25, who was murdered alongside her two young daughters by her husband; Lorraine Flood, aged 38, who was murdered alongside her two young children by her husband; Anne-Marie O’Neil, aged 50, who died after an attack on her home; and Nicola Sweeney, aged 19, who was stabbed to death by her neighbour. They also include Samantha Walsh, aged 31, a mother of four who was murdered by a stranger; Natalia Karaczyn, aged 30, who was murdered by her husband after attempting to separate from him; and Amy McCarthy, aged 22, who was murdered by her boyfriend and father to her infant son.

I apologise for taking this time but I do this simply to keep this going and keep the awareness of why we are doing this work right to the forefront of our mind. Deputy Smyth already asked my question of Ms McDermott as I was going to ask her specifically about that point on page 3 of her submission on the structure and model. What she has said is very important in not reinforcing sexist stereotypes. Her languages was "erases and infantilises the status of women and the violence they experience". It brings to mind the excellent document Safe Ireland produced in March 2021, No Going Back, which I thought was a moment of reflection, both intellectually and philosophically about women and their status, and is deeply relevant to the work of this committee. In that document, in particular, it states on root causes that:

It is our continued understanding that DSGBV is a root cause, not an effect or side-issue, of many households and family’s sufferings, regardless of what formation that home takes. We believe that if DSGBV were placed centrally in conceptualising these problems many parallel social problems ... would gain greater capacity to respond at depth.

I wanted to take a moment within the committee’s work to go back to that document and to ask Ms McDermott about the philosophical underpinning of it, as it was a very important moment in the debate.