Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her advocacy in this regard. I can hear the passion when she talks about this matter. Domestic violence has increased and has in fact doubled in the past 15 years. In my previous life as a family lawyer, l dealt with many women, and some men, who were victims of domestic violence. Ms Sarah Grace has spoken very eloquently on the criminal justice system. I could use the term "in part", but to a large extent many victims did not come forward because of their fear of the criminal justice system and facing that. The fact that we now have Garda training will help a lot. Gardaí are better equipped in how to deal with this violence. Judges also need training to deal with victims, and to make the process more victim friendly and victim centred, so there is not that fear and, primarily, that the woman is believed.

Much legislation has been brought in relating to this area, such as Coco's Law. There is now legislation around coercive control, which the Deputy mentioned, and consent, which did not even exist when I was growing up. We have made huge strides but this is, as it is called in France, the grande cause nationale. It is something that will never go away. We have to stop it at its grassroots level before it becomes something really violent, similar to what happened to Ashling Murphy and the more than 200 women who have died since 1996.

I thank the Deputy for her efforts on this issue. The Minister, Deputy Harris, has a zero-tolerance approach to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, as does the Government. For my part, I will also continue to advocate.

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