Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I could use the words "I welcome the opportunity", but "welcome" is not the word when we are talking about this topic. I wish we could monitor the implementation of the third strategy on a regular basis, and have an implementation discussion as opposed to statements. I have made statements continuously since 2016. Repeatedly, I acknowledge that progress has been made. I acknowledge theoretically that the third national strategy was finally published, but, as always, I look back.

I have before me - it is worth looking at it - the detail of the finance in this regard. This tends to appeal to the male mind more than the female mind. According to Safe Ireland in conjunction with the University of Galway, the national estimated cost of domestic violence in a 20.5-year period is €56 billion. I find it hard to credit it. Details of the costs associated with hospitalisation and loss of productivity, etc., are set out clearly over and again over a 20.5-year period. I often make the point that even on an economic level - in the context of what we are discussing and the horrific figures, it is not really funny - this is how much it costs, at a conservative estimate.

We are looking at the results of the first ever CSO survey on sexual violence, as published on 19 April. I understand it is part of a series of publications between April and July of this year, and then over the next five years. It is the largest examination of the issue of sexual violence in the State with over 4,500 participants between May and December of last year. I welcome the updated figures but, as usual, I want to put this in perspective.

We usually get sense at the age of 21. In the past, it was when we got to vote. I think that any government has to look at what are we being told, 21 years later. It is 21 years since the SAVI report on sexual abuse and violence in Ireland, which was published in January 2002. When I was re-reading it, I realised that it was a play on the word "savvy", in relation to being savvy about the statistics and the extent of the violence. I had forgotten that. In the 21 years since 2002, 181 women have died violently in Ireland. The recent survey from the CSO shows that very little has improved in terms of sexual violence prevalence since the SAVI report, which means that efforts at reducing sexual violence have not been effective.

It is truly shocking that 21 years elapsed before any research was done. My colleagues and I have stood up on this side of the House repeatedly to beg for the SAVI report to be updated. In fact, I will quote one of the original authors, Professor Hannah McGee, in relation to it. The seventh of the report's eight recommendations was that there would be ongoing research. Of course, it never happened. When Professor McGee looked at the figures in relation to the CSO, she acknowledged there were caveats in comparing the two sets of statistics. However, there is a huge communality in relation to the prevalence of violence and sexual abuse in our country. It should be said that it is mostly carried out by people who are known to the victims. That is very important, given the wider discussion or absence of discussion that is going on outside the Dáil in relation to fear of strangers. Professor McGee, who was one of the original authors 21 years ago, has said:

The 2022 figures are shocking. Half of adult women and more than a quarter of adult men reported some lifetime exposure to sexual violence. Yet almost half of women (47per cent) and nearly three-quarters ... of men, did not disclose these experiences to anyone ...

Because I am conscious of time, I will not go into it. It is here on the record and we are all aware of it. Going back to SAVI, Professor McGee has said:

Having collected the voices and stories [at the time it was ground-breaking research] of 3,120 women and men sharing their experiences [back then], I cannot notlook back at what those statistics tell now, whatever the statistical caveats. They tell me that not much, if anything, has changed for the better in 21 years. Sexual violence is an iceberg – huge and hidden. And we need a serious national dialogue to figure out how to change it ...

That is what Professor Hannah McGee, deputy vice-chancellor for academic affairs at the RCSI university of medicine, is telling us.

The year my second son was born, the Report of the Task Force on Violence Against Women was published. The foreword was by the then Minister of State at the Office of the Tánaiste, Eithne Fitzgerald. Does the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, remember Eithne Fitzgerald? Ms Fitzgerald set out, "The Task Force’s aim is to ensure women experiencing violence ... have real options," and she talks about programmes for men and perpetrators. That was in 1997. They set out recommendations. Nothing happened. The report talks about the injustice of the perpetrator staying in the house and victim having to leave the house. Nothing much has changed in relation to that.

We still have not got the promised report on homicides. There is no report on that. We still have no report on the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017. No report is available. It is the same person doing both, which in my opinion is madness, and we are still waiting. Such is the lack of value we place on women's affairs. Ms Sinéad Gibney, chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, stated in January this year that "Violence against women has reached crisis levels in Ireland."

My time is finishing. I am not here to lambast. I am here to highlight that violence is endemic and we as a society have failed to deal with it on any level, notwithstanding the wonderful strategies and the wonderful promises. This is merely the tip of the iceberg in relation to the reports to date. We are committing to doubling the number of refuges. That is after sustained pressure, where nine counties have none. Also, we are still not complying with our obligations under the Istanbul Convention.

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