Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the audit of structures concerning domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, the report referred to a lack of effective oversight of the implementation of the previous national strategy, a fragmented approach, a lack of interest in attendance by some Departments and a lack of effective, costed implementation plans for the two national strategies. I am not making this up. According to Safe Ireland, the third national strategy is more ambitious than its predecessors but the measures barely scratch the surface of what is a wide-scale social problem. Ms Sinéad Gibney, chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, states violence against women has reached crisis levels in Ireland. After the publication of the SAVI Report, it took 21 years to produce the CSO survey. Professor Hannah McGee, lead author of the SAVI Report, states the following in respect of the CSO report:

[N]ot 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 the background I am coming from regarding this.

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