Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Martin Kenny. I asked for these statements following the publication of the annual impact report published last month by Women's Aid. I very much welcome that the debate is finally taking place. That report contained shocking detail that exposes the horrific reality of domestic abuse taking place right across the State. It revealed that the number of people contacting Women's Aid increased by 43% in the past year compared with the previous year. While we were all told to stay at home due to the pandemic in order to stay safe, home has been anything but safe for the many women and children who have been trapped with an abuser.

The report makes for heartbreaking and really harrowing reading. Behind the statistics are thousands of stories of real families in despair, with women and children being beaten, sexually abused and subjected to psychological torture and coercive control. No one should ever have to live like that. Everyone deserves to live safely and with dignity and to know that if they experience abuse, support will be there for them as and when they seek it. This should be a given in a modern, equal society. However, the reality is that this Government, like the ones before it, fails to support survivors of abuse. That is an unacceptable reality and one that must change.

I take the opportunity to commend the important work Women's Aid and other organisations across this sector do, day in and day out, to support women and children who need help. They literally save lives. Their services were stretched to the limit before Covid-19 and the pandemic has made their work even more urgent. Women's Aid has warned of the unprecedented and exhausting impact of trying to combat this tsunami of abuse with already overstretched and underfunded resources. I have a direct question for the Taoiseach in this regard. When will the Government take domestic abuse seriously and provide the sector with the funding and resources necessary to give women and children the support they urgently need? We should not make do with half measures.

The Government is very quick to offer sympathetic words about domestic violence and such words are, of course, very welcome. However, survivors need more than platitudes and empty promises. They need clear commitments now that the Taoiseach will end this scandal and finally deliver the funding and investment needed. Nothing other than that is unacceptable. Year after year, Ireland fails to fulfil its obligations under the Istanbul Convention to provide refuge places for those fleeing abuse. Community and voluntary services try to bridge the gaps left by the State's failure but they are pushed to their limits. There are currently nine counties without any refuge provision whatsoever. Where refuges exist, they are stretched to capacity and faced with the appalling situation of having to turn away women and children who are in real danger simply because they have no room for them. We can agree that this is scandalous.

I ask the Taoiseach to commit today to meeting the State's emergency accommodation obligations under the Istanbul Convention. Will he commit that budget 2022 will contain the additional investment needed to guarantee these refuge spaces are delivered? Will the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage finally commit to including all adults and children living in Tusla-funded emergency accommodation in the monthly homeless figures, thereby ensuring those families are no longer brushed under the carpet by the Government's failure even to acknowledge they exist and count them as part of its statistics?

Recent revelations that members of An Garda Síochána cancelled 999 calls made by people seeking help for domestic abuse have compounded fears that a culture still exists in Ireland in which abuse is not seen as serious and a priority for emergency services.

We have to send the message loud and clear to all those affected that abuse is never the fault of the victim, it is never something one simply has to put up with, and help will be there if one asks for it.

Women’s Aid has called for a complete root-and-branch revision of this system to work out what went wrong and how the Garda can learn from it to ensure it never happens again. Can the Taoiseach commit to that today?

Survivors of domestic violence also need to have the right to take paid leave from work so that they can attend court or medical appointments or arrange safe accommodation without worrying about losing their jobs. Sinn Féin has developed legislation to deliver this, with my colleague, Deputy O'Reilly, taking the lead in that regard, but the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Varadkar, will not consider this legislation in terms of a workplace right. I am again asking the Taoiseach to ensure the Government parties work with us to progress this legislation, to recognise this as a worker's right and to ensure victims and survivors get the support they need. Survivors cannot be expected to wait any longer for these vital rights.

We also need major reform of the courts, which are far too often misused by abusers as a way to continue harassing women and children who have fled. I welcome the establishment of the family justice oversight group by the Department of Justice, but its work must be expedited, along with the family court Bill. This must be delivered along with a statutory child maintenance service and a network of child contact centres to modernise our system and bring it into the 21st century and to protect survivors of abuse.

I want to send a clear message from the Dáil today to anyone listening who may be experiencing abuse. I say to them that they are not alone and they do not have to accept this situation. I assure them that they will be believed and supported in finding safety and rebuilding their life. I would like the Government now to measure up to their great courage and to provide the resources that are so badly needed.

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