Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the witnesses for their opening statements and submissions.

We are all conscious we are here because so many women in our society in particular, albeit men too, have suffered for so long and have been the victims of femicide. The case of Ashling Murphy galvanised everybody in the country. We are all here because we want things to change given, clearly, they have not been working properly, and that is the first thing we have to recognise. When legislation such as this is brought forward, we know it is not going to be perfect on the first draft, and the Government and everybody else have to recognise that. We have to try to find a means by which we can make it better. The various submissions outlined many of the points on which we need to focus. I was struck in particular by the point made by Safe Ireland, echoed in many of the other contributions, regarding the issue of rebalancing and recognising the depth of knowledge that exists in the non-governmental sector. That sector has been carrying the burden in this context for generations, if we are honest about it, and I assume the departmental staff who are attending the meeting will recognise that. There is a bit of work to be done on that and we need to bring it into focus.

One of the primary issues I have found is that when women come forward in a position of crisis, in most of the cases I have dealt with, one of the main problems they have is that there are very few places for them to seek refuge and then there are very few places for them to get long-term housing that will be appropriate to their needs. That is one of the key problems we face. Often, they are in a relationship with somebody and jointly own a house, which means they are not entitled sole access to it, and there are all sorts of problems in respect of that. It would be useful to hear comments about what needs to be done to ensure that knot is sorted out.