Dáil debates

Wednesday, 6 November 2019

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

 

12:15 pm

Photo of Ruth CoppingerRuth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach can sign up to conventions and put laws on the Statute Book. These are important and relatively easy things to do but they need to be backed up by change. We can see from reading the court reports that the definition of consent, which I argued for when I spoke at the committee, does not seem to be having one jot of an impact.

I welcome the No Excuses campaign. The difficulty, however, is that while it encourages more people to disclose, will they get the help they need? The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has said it has had a 25% increase in phone calls as a result of #MeToo and a more disclosing culture. The Government increased funding to the sector by 10% across the board, even though some areas needed more while others may have needed less.

Last year, 3,000 people became millionaires in this country and 3,000 children got help from a domestic violence service. There are also more than 3,000 children who are homeless. The idea that we do not have the money to support services to assist women, men and children who experience violence is simply not acceptable. Women's Aid published a report in the past month which included a finding from a survey that people believed there was no point in taking a case and the majority of respondents said they probably would not bother doing so again.

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