Mr. Se?n Cooke:

It is interesting to hear Senator Clonan talk. It does set off the alarm bells for us all to think of what has gone before. We talk about the agency not having any teeth. Some of the recommendations we have all made are manifested in people asking what the representation is on the committee itself and the strategy board as we go forward. That is clearly a manifestation of the fact that it would not have the teeth necessary to do the work that it has to do.

We talk about people like Andrew Tate and engagement with men and boys. An area of our work is around a particular methodology of engagement. We have to avoid the backlash which Senator Clonan spoke about, whether it is State agencies, individuals or wherever it may be. The invitation to engage men and boys needs to be done in a particular kind of way that it does not create that kind of backlash to the work.

Finally, I would raise something that has not come up today but is in our submission. We are one of the few organisations in the country that works with both perpetrators and victims and survivors of domestic abuse. It is one of the things that is not recognised at all in the heads of Bill. Early last year, the Council of Europe held a conference in Dublin under the Minister for Justice of the day. It agreed a Dublin declaration. It included working with perpetrators at the heart of working against domestic violence. The heads of the Bill should reflect that. Our experience over the years in working with both perpetrators and victims and survivors has given us a much broader understanding of the complex nature of the work. They do not happen in isolation. We know that domestic violence is a spectrum from victim to perpetrator. It is something that needs to be engaged with and included in the heads of the Bill.