Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom mo fíor-chomhbhrón a thabhairt do chlann agus cairde Ashling Murphy. Is tragóid uafásach í seo amach agus amach. Ba bean bhríomhar í le buanna iontacha sa chultúr, i gceol agus in oideachas agus is caill ollmhór í seo dá clann, dá pobal, dá scoil agus don tír. Ní dhéanfaimid dearmad uirthi go deo sa tír seo.

Ashling's death is a catastrophe, a disaster for her family. My heart goes out to her family and friends over the coming days as they try to come to terms with what has happened. I also want to extend my sincere condolences to the family of Michael Tormey, a father of three, who was shot dead in the garden of his home in Ballyfermot in the early hours of 9 January. I commend the Garda on charging a suspect in that case today.

Ashling's death has forced this country to have a long overdue conversation about gender-based violence. As elected representatives in this Dáil, we have a responsibility today to move beyond rhetoric and to take action against the causes of violence and to build a culture so that every girl and woman in this country will feel safe. Ireland is not as safe as it once was. If we are honest with ourselves, society has become harsher, more dangerous and more violent. Figures obtained by my office show there has been a shocking increase in sexual violence in the past five years alone. In 2016, the CSO recorded 2,520 sexual offences. That increased to 3,340 by 2019. Figures published by the CSO on sexual assaults show that more than one in five, or 20.8%, of those assaults were committed by boys under the age of 18. It is startling what is happening to young boys and men in this country at the moment. We cannot get away from the fact that there has been a significant change in their lives.

Access to hardcore pornography by young children contributes to violence against women. We witnessed the shocking murder of Ana Kriégel in recent years. That case highlighted the fact that access to violent pornography especially plays a role in the attitudes of young boys to women. Over Christmas I was talking to a parent who told me that she had checked the family tablet and a ten-year old child in the family had been googling Santa Claus one minute and hardcore pornography the next minute. This is what is happening in this country in 2022. Countries such as Iceland, France and Italy are moving to ban the provision of hardcore porn to children. We in Aontú tabled a Bill that would ban hardcore pornography from being provided to children. Right now, that Bill languishes, and is awaiting Second Stage. When it was before the Dáil on First Stage, we had platitudes, shrugs and people saying it was shocking, but there has been no move at all by the Government to get to grips with this issue.

I also wish to mention domestic violence. A number of documents released to my office have shown that in the first four months of lockdown, the number of people contacting the Rape Crisis Network Ireland helpline increased by 15%, while appointments increased by 11%. Barnardos also wrote to the Minister saying that it had examined its intensive family support to early years services.

Its snapshot look at 1,250 cases presenting in one week in September 2020. It found that, of these families, 44% were experiencing difficulties related to mental health, one in four were experiencing domestic violence in the home and 21% were experiencing issues with regard to addiction. All of these issues are feeding into violence against women in the State. Around the same time, Parentline contacted the Minister to say it was experiencing a large increase in the number of parents calling its helpline, with a massive 300% increase in requests for access to the non-violent resistance programme. According to Women's Aid, 244 women have died violently in Ireland since 1996. We know the number of female murder victims as a percentage of the annual total cases is on the rise and rose sharply last year.

In my and the Minister’s county, I have been calling for seven years for a rape crisis outreach clinic to be opened. Right now, if a person is a victim of rape or sexual abuse in County Meath, they must travel to Dundalk, Tullamore or Dublin. If they do not have transport, that service is not accessible to them. We need to make sure we have investment in the locations where victims and survivors live so they can access those services. I reach out to the Minister today to see if she can do anything to help with funding to provide for this in our county of Meath.

I see that I have run out of time. I will leave it at that and hand over to my colleague.

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