Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her response and the update she gave. I note that some of the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on gender equality are already being met by the steps being taken towards the delivery of a strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. That is very important.

What lies behind my reading out of the women's names is an effort to identify the circumstances of each of them, who they were, where they were and what happened to them on the day they died. We have been putting that information on Instagram to tell their stories and try to keep the momentum going on this issue. For my staff and the people who work around me, it is a deeply distressing issue to be dealing with every day. We do not regret beginning this work but it is important to acknowledge that it takes an emotion toll even on us, as far removed as we are. We are trying to keep telling the stories of the women and families. I named 32 women, each of whom had a family who are now without her and have been for up to 27 years.

At the end of January, a walk took place with the family of Urantsetseg Tserendorj from where she worked in the International Financial Services Centre to her home in Dublin 1, just off Talbot Street. When I went on that walk on a rainy January night, what was so striking was just how short it is. It is a short and ordinary route and the attack took place in the late evening. I still cannot get over how short and ordinary a route it is. To lose one's life in such a normal course of events is absolutely appalling. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this issue, which I will continue to do throughout the year in an effort to maintain the momentum of remembering these women, recognising that the Minister for Justice and her Department are doing the work from a policy perspective. Much of this is about changing attitudes and we cannot do that if we allow this issue to slip off the front pages and into the shadows until something else happens.

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