Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

Safe Ireland has now published its national statistics on domestic violence for 2010. I am sure the Tánaiste has seen them and is shocked by them. On more than 3,000 occasions, women and children could not be accommodated in refuges. Terrified woman and children were turned away, with the numbers representing a 38% increase on the 2009 figure.

The programme for Government makes a commitment to consolidate and reform domestic violence legislation. What is happening with the commitment? Why is there no reference to it in the legislative programme? What does the Government intend to do about the cutbacks that literally devastated services for women and children fleeing domestic violence?

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