Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is an extremely important debate to have. I believe one of the greatest fears facing us as we hope to progress to the post-lockdown phase for Ireland is what we have yet to discover behind closed doors across this nation. We already know about, or at least have some glimpse of, the mental health issues that are going to be uncovered, which are of a scale that we have yet to come to terms with. We know the impact the lockdown has had on elderly people. Many of the older people to whom I have talked say they felt disempowered by being told that they are particularly vulnerable and must cocoon. All of that has taken a terrible toll on elderly people. It has taken a terrible toll too on the families who are at their wits' end coping with children with special needs. I spoke to one such family in my constituency yesterday.

It is heartbreaking to hear about the pressures on so many different categories of our citizenry in this unprecedented time.

We may never get a complete picture of the extent of the domestic violence that has happened over recent months. We know that domestic violence reports to An Garda Síochána have increased by some 30% in certain areas, but how many of those in lockdown, in close proximity to their abuser, have been unable or have had no opportunity to reach out and seek help? Women's Aid has reported huge levels of stress and violence. This is not a pattern unique to Ireland. All the international data that have come on stream in recent days and weeks have shown that this is happening across the world, and the UK is predicting millions of additional cases of intimate partner violence during the pandemic.

In that context, it is of the utmost importance that from the outset of this crisis there have been clear instructions to every member of An Garda Síochána to arrest perpetrators of domestic violence, notwithstanding the general Covid-19 difficulties. I commend the Minister and the Commissioner on this. That has had an impact we are thankful for.

The time involved in Covid-19 lockdown has sometimes resulted in what psychologists refer to as the practice of gaslighting. I was unaware of it until recent times. Apparently, it is a reference to a play in which a woman is subjected to psychological torture. To be in a confined space and to have emotional games played, to be told the violence and coercion is not real, that a person is making it up, that it never happened, and that he or she is imagining things is a phenomenon now. Women, in particular, have been subjected to this psychological torture. Severe isolation, as we have endured in recent months, can make victims rely on their abusers to define their sense of reality and normality, and over time, what is horrific and unacceptable is presented as acceptable and somehow normal.

In that context too, the importance of the Still Here campaign, as other have referenced, is, has been, and remains extremely important, whereby agencies are telling people in clear and repeated fashion that those agencies are still here and for those people to reach out if they are in difficulty. However, there are people, particularly vulnerable women, who are in close proximity to their abusers and who simply do not have the facility to do that. We must find new ways of giving assistance and allowing them to reach out.

The Minister in his own contributions made reference to child abuse, and unfortunately we have had a long and sad litany of investigations and subsequent revelations over the past 30 years. The Minister referenced the very first one of the modern era, the Kilkenny incest case. I happened to be Minister for Health when that arose, and I asked the then senior counsel, Mrs. Catherine McGuinness, to head up that investigation. That was a very good choice.

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