Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

It is very difficult to squeeze the issue of gender inequality into a minute and a half. I will have to drop the topics of the gender pay gap, unaffordable childcare, and the endometriosis briefing that took place earlier. I will focus on what was newsworthy today, namely, the Safe Ireland report, which stated that nine requests for help from women's refuges are unmet every day. In some cases, those women then stayed in violent relationships. What is the point of Department of Justice and Equality spending money on awareness campaigns if there are no places for people to go when they seek help? I refer specifically to the refuge based in Blanchardstown. On International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, 25 November, the refuge held a public meeting at which the CEO of Sonas spoke. She told us that up to 500 families are turned away from that refuge every year, which is in mine and the Taoiseach's constituency. Tomorrow, women from Blanchardstown will come here at 11.30 a.m. to hand in hundreds of letters signed by local people. I ask the Taoiseach to make the time to meet them and to take those letters.

When I last raised this, the Taoiseach said that maybe we should look at something different and that maybe the perpetrators should leave. With all due respect, I think the women would have thought of that without the Taoiseach raising it. It did display an ignorance about being in a violent relationship and the dangers facing women. Why has €20 million been given to the entire sector nationally, a figure that is just slightly greater than that given to the greyhound industry, when the Taoiseach knows that up to four or five times more people seek help than actually get it? We also need more outreach services for schools and prevention and a rape crisis centre for Dublin West. Why will the Government not increase the funding for this sector?

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