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

Yesterday was a very significant and important day with the publication of the third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. I thank the Minister and congratulate her on her work in steering the Department towards the strategy's publication yesterday. It is an extremely far-reaching strategy but its real strength is that it has been built on exceptional collaboration between the Government and the sector, including the service providers in the area of domestic violence and NGOs representing women and men who have experienced such difficulties in their homes and workplaces and on our streets for many years. This strategy and the implementation plan that goes with it are a real step forward by the State. What will be important now is how we measure its implementation by the various Departments, including the Departments of Education, Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and Justice, because the implementation plan is very detailed. I congratulate the Minister on that.

The reason we need this strategy is well known and that has been especially the case over the Covid-19 period. This year, facilitated by the Ceann Comhairle, I have been reading into the Dáil record the names of the far too many women who have died at the extreme end of gender violence, that is, femicide. The 244 women who have died in violent circumstances over the last 25 years have been identified by Women's Aid. If the Leas-Cheann Comhairle does not mind, I will read out the names of those who died in the months of July and August in each of past 25 years.

Those who died in July were Jamie Maughan Farrelly, Xiang Yi Wang, Eileen Coyne, Bridget McFadden, Margaret Concannon, Carmel Marrinan, Elizabeth Troy, Paiche Onyemaechi, Sheola Keaney, Mary Sleator, Linda Evans Christian, Catherine McEnery, Nicola Vonkova, Nora Kiely, Marie Quigley, Deirdre Jacob and Debbie Fox.

Those who died in August were Margaret O’Sullivan, Maura McKinney, Fiona Pender, Catherine Doyle, Margaret Murphy, Chantal Bergeron, Carmel Coyne, Mook Ah Mooi, Lynette McKeown, Frances Ralph, Ann Walsh, Breda Ryan, Jean Gilbert, Eugenia Bratis, Elizabeth Duff, Jacqueline McDonagh, Elaine O'Hara, Aleksandra Sarzynska, Carol McAuley, Clodagh Hawe, Antoinette Corbally and Neasa Murray.

Sometimes, when names are read out like that it can seem like a list. It can seem a little prosaic but every single one of those names is a woman who died in violent circumstances. Every single one is a woman who is missed by her family and friends. Friends and families of those women have contacted me since, not to thank me but to acknowledge their remembrance in the Dáil. It is the reason this Government and the Minister have been working so hard towards this strategy and towards developing a culture of zero tolerance.

Of course, the issue is not just femicide but everything before that point. It is every measure of harassment and every entry-level aggression. It is all the things that contribute to making women feel unsafe and make all the women inside and outside the Oireachtas act differently from their male counterparts, whether it is in the workplace or when going home at night on public transport. It is all the things women have had to put up with and which, at the very extreme end, can result in what I have described. This strategy paves the way towards helping to reach the serious cultural change that I hope will underpin a different experience for the next generation over the coming 25 years from the experience of the generation that has gone before.

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