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

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to come back to this important subject as the third national strategy is prepared and published. I want to use this opportunity to recognise why we are doing this and to keep the awareness of why we are doing this at the forefront of our minds.

I acknowledge the presence of Deputy David Stanton, who, when he was with the Department of Justice, brought through the groundbreaking legislation on coercive control and who has chaired the interdepartmental group on gender violence for some time. I also acknowledge Deputy Alan Farrell, who has done huge advocacy to raise awareness around how women feel at risk in various different situations, including while on public transport and while out and about. Deputy Farrell has been a huge advocate and champion in trying to advance the cause against sexual and gender-based violence.

Although we have had the very serious outpouring of care in the response after the death of Ashling Murphy, it is important that we remember all of the women who have died as a consequence of femicide. The Ceann Comhairle will be aware that we are trying to do this throughout the year to remember the women at different stages. I will take the opportunity now to read into the record of the House the names of the women who died in the months of May and June since 1996. In the month of May there were 21 women: Angela Collins, Kitty Gubbins, Georgina O'Donnell, Helen Donegan, Martina Halligan, Donna Cleary, Patti Bainbridge, Mairéad Moran, Niamh Murphy, Marie Hennessy, Breda Cummins, Rita Apine, Anastasia Kriégel, Mary Ryan, Lorraine Crowley, Georgina Eager, Siobhan Stapleton, Bente Carroll, Patricia Murphy, Patricia O’Connor, and Giedre Raguckaite. In the month of June there were 12 women: Mandy Wong, Sinead Kelly, Gertrude Dolan, Veronica Guerin, Karen Guinee, Sara Neligan, Tracey O'Brien, Jolanta Lubiene, Lynn Cassidy, Antra Ozolina, Skaidrite Valdgeima, and Valerie French Kilroy. These names are from the Women's Aid Femicide Watch, which was published in March 2022.

I shall now outline some of the figures: 249 women have died violently between 1996 and 2022; 18 children have died alongside their mothers; 158 of the women died in their own homes; 196 cases have been resolved; in the 87% of cases that have been resolved, the women were killed by a man known to them; 13% of the women were killed by a stranger; and one in two victims were killed by a current or former male intimate partner, which is 55% of the resolved cases. It can, of course, be a woman of any age but women under the age of 35 make up 50% of the cases in Ireland. In almost all murder-suicide cases, which is 22 out of the 23, the killer was the woman's partner.

The reading of the women's names into the record is more important than I had realised. I was contacted by a woman last week who reminded me about one of the women, whose name I read out previously, who had died in 2004. They had known each other and the woman rang to tell me the story of how she had pleaded with the woman not go back to that house and how she felt it was only going to end one way. She spoke of how it matters to people, to the friends of the victims, to their families, to the nieces and nephews, to the children and to the brothers and sisters of victims that we remember these women and that we remember why we are doing the work on the third strategy. They were voiceless in death. Unless we take this time - and I am glad of these few minutes - to acknowledge them here they will remain voiceless and their experience will remain voiceless. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to do it this evening.

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