Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister might not know what I was raising today but he has read from a very good briefing document. I asked the Minister not to do that. I asked him not to give me the background. I asked him when the two specific reports would be published. What is the delay with them? I am very familiar with the strategy that is to be published. We have an internal Garda review into the cancellation of phone calls from distressed women, children and men. Is the Minister satisfied with an internal report six months after the Policing Authority was told and longer in terms of when it was discovered?

Can the Minister please tune in to the cost of domestic violence on every level? Perhaps for the men and that mentality about driving the economy, the cost to the economy alone is €2.2 billion at a conservative estimate. The cost psychologically and intergenerationally is far beyond that. The reason I am standing here, as previous colleagues have done, is to get away from the word "chronic", as used by the Minister.

The only time I would use the word "chronic" is in respect of the lack of action. There is a chronic lack of action by this Government and previous Governments with regard to domestic and gender-based violence. I do not want any more words. I want action. The most basic action concerns the two reports that were commissioned. When will they be published?

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