Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and I would appreciate the table. This is really about acknowledging what it took to get to this point. The Minister's colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, has read out the names of the people who were victims. To put this in context, 12 women died in violent circumstances in Ireland in 2022, making it the worst year in a decade for violence against women. Between 1996 and 8 April 2023, a total of 258 women died violently in Ireland. These statistics show that 165 of these women had been killed in their own homes. Despite a programme for Government commitment to introducing domestic homicide reviews, we have not seen this yet. Sinéad Gibney, chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, stated in January this year that "Violence against women has reached crisis levels in Ireland". I will come in my second contribution to the other steps that got us this far and the significant and serious delays in this regard. There is no room, therefore, for any more delay or hesitation.

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