Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister claims I am consistently disappointed. I will remain disappointed so long as Women's Aid produces reports that reflect such statistics. Not only I but many women and citizens will remain disappointed if the Minister continues to delay the introduction of consolidated domestic violence legislation. Will the Minister take the opportunity today to give a date for the introduction of this legislation? Will he also respond to the call from Women's Aid for an on-call system for accessing emergency barring orders that would afford women and children 24-7 security? Will he elaborate on his reluctance to sign the European Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence? I cited the Minister’s reply to a parliamentary question that I tabled in which he referred to concerns about emergency barring orders and property rights as his rationale for not ratifying the convention.

I do not want to be disappointed on this issue. Instead, I want to be encouraged and optimistic that the Government will take the right actions and not drag its feet on these matters. Will the Minister set out his concrete plans for introducing the consolidated legislation and on-call emergency barring orders and signing the European convention? Offering concrete dates for these three items will give some sense not just to Women's Aid but to the women who rely on its services that they are being heard and, when their experiences are recounted in this Chamber and elsewhere, that their stories are not falling on deaf ears.

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