Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I offer my condolences to the family of Ashling Murphy. There are no adequate words of comfort that I can provide except to say that we are thinking of her and her family.

I take this opportunity to remember a young woman called Karen Buckley. Karen was murdered in Scotland in April 2015. She was a postgraduate occupational therapy student from Mourneabbey, Mallow, County Cork. I do not want us to forget about Karen; I want us to remember her as a person of great character and intelligence and as a warm and caring person. Our thoughts go out to Karen’s parents, John and Marian, and her brothers and wider family as we approach the sixth anniversary of her death.

It is important that we remember Karen and Ashling, what their families have lost and what we as a community have lost through their absence. The common thread that binds Karen to Ashling is the great love that their families had for them and they for their families. They were both young women, forging career paths in professions that are by their nature caring ones and that says so much about their individual characters. Today, we remember them and we must ensure that we do not forget them.

If there is one practical measure that people in our profession, the profession of politics, can support, it is the Bystander Intervention programme operated by University College Cork, UCC. I acknowledge the work of Professor Louise Crowley of UCC and the bystander team. This programme aims to educate and empower young people to speak up as a bystander when they notice sexual harassment and violence and demand a zero-tolerance approach. It is not enough that we merely remember these young women. It is our responsibility to ensure that we fund and support programmes such as the bystander intervention programme, which seeks to shift attitudes and the culture of sexual harassment and violence against women that seems so endemic in our society. I am grateful for this opportunity to speak for a few moments and to reiterate again that the families of Ashling Murphy, of Karen Buckley and of so many women are in our thoughts.

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