Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to preface my comments by repeating what was said in the report from the Citizens' Assembly, that is, that gender equality is a topic that affects us all. My comments are made in an inclusive fashion. I thank the Citizens' Assembly for acting so quickly during a very difficult time in the context of Covid and for producing a report with 45 recommendations under eight headings. In five minutes I cannot go into all of the recommendations but I agree with most of them. They merit deeper consideration, reflection and action, which they have asked us for.

I particularly welcome the recommendations to change the Constitution in regard to the woman's place in the home and the provision of public childcare. It is a disappointment to me that was not a heading in the budget. That would have been a most practical measure and a message sent out to the public that we are serious about gender equality. However, in my time I want to zone in on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. I thank the chair of the assembly who decided early on in the process that this issue should be considered by the assembly even though it was not within the terms of reference. Members of the assembly emphasised the need for strong, co-ordinated action by Government, with 95.6% voting that a Cabinet Minister should hold responsibility in domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and so on.

There are 45 recommendations generally, but in regard to this issue there are five or six which are particularly focused and can be put into practice. Before I come to them, I would like to set the context of this. Let us look at the Women's Aid annual report for 2020.

There is an increase of 43% in contacts. The figures are astronomical. There were 29,770 contacts with Women's Aid alone. The helpline heard 22,685 disclosures. It is all there in the report. That is the background.

I have repeatedly mentioned the cost to the economy of not dealing with domestic violence. The estimated annual economic cost of domestic violence is €2.2 billion. However, recent research from NUIG is even more upsetting. There is a summary report from its research from July, and I understand a substantive report will follow. Researchers found the aggregate cost of domestic violence over a woman's journey to safety is €113,475 per woman. That is one figure. They estimate a cost of at least €2.7 billion to the economy. I direct my comments to the economists who fail to take in the cost of this and of failing to do this. Again, this is absolutely conservative. The estimated national cost of domestic violence over a woman's journey is €56 billion. These figures are so big that they are difficult to comprehend but the message I have repeatedly asked us to accept is that we need consider the value, to use the economists' terms, of not doing something about it.

Then we look at the background. In 1997, we had a task force which produced a report and said that services were fragmented and piecemeal. We have had two strategies since then which were never implemented. If they were implemented at all, it was piecemeal and fragmented. Then we had the review that came out this year. It was in relation to the monitoring body report published earlier on, with which the Minister is very familiar. On the monitoring body, some of them failed to show. There are interesting points highlighted in the audit published recently. It was found there were:

... some areas that have seen little or no progress. These include gaps in data collection and analysis, in service funding and delivery, and meeting victim needs ...

They are the exact same words that were used back in 1997, when my second son was born. He is now 24 years of age and we have another report telling us no progress has been made. It tells us the monitoring body was ineffective. It met sometimes. The absence or the failure of some Departments to attend is mentioned. It is absolutely damning and it is all set out in that report.

I have 23 seconds left. What I am going to do with 23 seconds, except welcome the work of the Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality and point out that I am sick, sore and tired of reading reports? I have read them all. I have them all here. We lack action and a serious commitment to realising that if we do not have gender equality, we cannot have an equal society and therefore we cannot have a thriving economy. We need to address it. I am especially worried by the recommendation that domestic violence, sexual violence and gender-based violence should go back under the Department of Justice. I would love to hear the Minister's views on that proposal. I have seen very good comments on Cosc, the subgroup that was within the Department but was done away with. I understand the person in charge of Cosc went to Tusla and was never replaced. I am here tonight with all of these reports and I am looking at a citizens' assembly, but what I see is an absolute failure of government after government to match the strategy's theory to the actual words. That actually comes from the audit published by the Minister a few months ago. The Acting Chairman is being very generous with me. Last of all, the report on refuges still has not been published so maybe the Minister will address that when he is summing up.

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