Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Debenhams workers will organise socially distanced pickets and protests across the country next Monday outside their stores to mark and celebrate International Women's Day and to mark day 333 of their dispute. In Cork they will be joined by Arcadia workers. These two groups of women workers will speak with one voice when they ask the Government where the legislation it promised to protect workers' rights in liquidations is. Perhaps the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, might tell them tonight.

Across the world the issue of gender-based violence will feature strongly in International Women's Day protests. It is no surprise when worldwide six women are killed every hour by violent men. Gender-based violence is the shadow pandemic. Here in Ireland nearly 3,500 women contacted domestic violence services for the first time between March and August of last year. The last Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland, SAVI, report was published in 2002, 19 years ago. Will the Minister agree that it is a disgrace that this has been deprioritised for so long? Will he guarantee that a new SAVI report will be started more or less immediately, once public health restrictions permit?

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