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

Femicide is the most extreme end of gender and sexual violence. However, it is part of a bigger problem and what leads to it is a cultural acceptance of entry-level harassment and misogyny, which Deputy Alan Farrell called out in a very public way in his experience on public transport. It is the controlling behaviours that have been exhibited, which Deputy Stanton tried to address through his legislation on coercive control. People said there was no point, that one could not prosecute a pattern, an idea or a set of behaviours, but that was shown to be wrong. I commend the Garda for following up and prosecuting what people said could not be prosecuted, that is, that controlling and manipulative set of behaviours.

So much of this issue is rooted in education. The Joint Committee on Gender Equality is working away every Thursday morning down in the committee rooms. We have heard from the secondary school students' unions, Safe Ireland and academics. It does not matter who we speak to; it all comes back to education. We need fact-based and consent-based education that respects personhood from the earliest age and is open and transparent about sexuality, facts and equality. Unless every child in Ireland receives this appropriate education, we do not have a chance. When Deputies in this House drop their kids at school they might look around the playground and wonder which of these children will suffer this fate in 20, 25 or 30 years, or any other form of misogyny or harassment, and which of them will be the perpetrators. What are we going to do today and over the next five and ten years that is different from the education I got, or the education other Deputies got 20, 30 or 40 years ago? What are we doing to make it radically different and give us some chance of delivering a better outcome for those children 20 or 25 years from now? Objective education for all children is the only hope of a solution.

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