Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I could not believe what was in front of me when I was reading this report. When you look at the statistics, you see the reason that 2022 was the deadliest year of the decade for women in Ireland with 12 deaths in the State, two in the North and one Irish woman in the UK. That means 15 women died violently last year. Five children also died in siblicide and domestic homicide. That reveals for us the manifold elements of domestic abuse. The Garda informs us that 52% of murders had a domestic violence motivation. As I said, these figures are truly shocking. When we see the figures from the CSO, we see to a large extent what is underpinning those crime statistics.

Some 52% of women and 28% of men reported experience of sexual violence in their lifetime. When I looked at that, I was horrified, as I know the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is, because that says a great deal about our society. It is not enough anymore to talk about awareness. We need to move way beyond that. Also, the low levels of disclosure were fairly frightening as well.

Safe Ireland speaks about this. I will quote what it says because it says it better than I could:

Safe Ireland stresses the importance of developing measures which bring about significant cultural transformation in the attitudes and behaviours underpinning violence; and that promote a culture that positively promotes an esteem for women in all aspects of private and public life.

It continues:

There is a need to shift from conventional public awareness campaigns towards a more meaningful measure that address the root causes of violence against women and brings about radical transformation in attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. Responsibility must extend beyond role of the State to also include the judiciary, the private sector and the media, as well as geographic and interest-based communities.

It is telling the truth.

It is saying that this is the approach we need to take if we are to do anything about those figures.

Before I sit down, I have a piece of good news. I spoke to the Domestic Violence Advocacy Service, DVAS, in Sligo today and it informed me that in the past few days a motion was passed by Sligo County Council that would be the first step in the development of a refuge for Sligo. There is a still a long way to go and a lot of steps on the road. We are hoping that Leitrim County Council will also approve such a message in the near future. While a refuge is only one small piece of the jigsaw, it is something we have been asking for for a long time and it seems we have started with it.

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