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

On 19 January this year, this House stood collectively behind the community of Tullamore and the family of Ashling Murphy following her untimely and violent death at the hands of a man in plain sight of onlookers. The good, decent people of Ireland stood, as we stood inside this House, in every town in Ireland in solidarity, in a massive public demonstration against violence against women. Violence by men against women was a theme universally condemned in this House. The Taoiseach and Tánaiste alike said we would do everything possible to prevent a crime of that kind from ever happening again. However, the reality is that violence against women of one kind or another is an all-too everyday occurrence. There is a spectrum of violence, from harassment to sexual assault, physical and emotional violence, to femicide. This remains grounded in a culture where women still make changes to their lives that do not need to be considered by men in the same way. These include changes to exercise plans, commuting plans, fear of the stranger, fear in their own community and fear in their own home.

In January this year, I took the opportunity to read into the record of the Dáil the names of the other women who we know lost their lives at the hands of a man over the past 27 years. I said then and will say now that it does not matter where women live or what they do, since, by their simple existence, women's lives are at risk from men who they know and do not know in a way that is just not replicated for men. It is an everyday problem which requires an all-of-society, everyday response by us, the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan and Deputy Alan Farrell, who has been an ally on this and stood with me on so many evenings to raise this important issue again and again.

Throughout this year, I have sought to try to keep this issue alive, not just in January, but throughout the year, by being consistent in recognising it and naming in this House all of the women who we know died at the hands of men over the past 27 years, as identified by Women's Aid. I have sought to give them equivalent recognition, insofar as we can, to the recognition that this House gave to Ashling Murphy and her family in January of this calendar year, though it seems so long ago at this point. Many of those women were migrants. Many were of different ages, colours and communities, but all of them died violently and needlessly. For the final time, I draw the House's attention to those women who died in the last two months, November and December, over the past 27 years.

The 17 women who died in November in that period are Kitty Fitzgerald, Regina O'Connor, Fabiole Camara De Campos, Carmel Breen, Mary Cully, Mary Kelehan, Ciara Ní Chathmhaoil, Noeleen Brennan, Alicia Brough, Sarah Hines, Dearbhla Keating, Baiba Saulite, Yvonne O'Shea, Marie Dillon, Susan Dunne, Marguerite O'Dwyer and Eileen Costello O'Shaughnessy.

The 25 women who died in December in that time are Marilyn Rynn, Sophie Toscan du Plantier, Belinda Pereira, Geraldine Diver, Siobhan Hynes, Sheila Lynch, Jean Reilly, Jennifer Wilkinson, Sandra Collins, Susan Prakash, Sr. Philomena Lyons, Lisa Bell, Christine Quinn, Ann Flynn, Colleen Mulder, Sylvia Roche Kelly, Celine Cawley, Rebecca Hoban, Sharon Whelan, Sara Staunton, Angelique Belling, Valerie Greaney, Rose Hanrahan, Nadine Lott and Zeinat Bashabsheh.

This year, 2022, has itself been a year of significant violence against women. There has been significant progress from the Department of Justice, but despite our efforts in January to call it out in the way this House so collectively did, it has still been a very difficult year for women suffering at the hands of men, largely, and there is still much yet to be done. That is why I have raised the issue of funding in particular with the Minister of State.

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