Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Some 19 femicides have taken place in this State since the murder of Ashling Murphy. I put it to the Taoiseach that if that number of people had been killed by a paramilitary organisation, the State would rightly be moving mountains to try and achieve change, but male violence against women seems to bring forth a less urgent response. GREVIO - I hope I pronounced it correctly - the Council of Europe group of experts on violence against women, reported recently and made some serious criticisms of the Government and the State in this regard. I do not have time to detail them all but I will mention some. It said that data collection was insufficient, disjointed and incomparable on this issue. It said that the legal obligation on victims to disclose their therapy and counselling notes would discourage victims of violence; pointed to the need for more financial support by the State of women's rights organisations, particularly for multi-annual funding; criticised the frequent application of lenient sentences and the tendency to rely on suspended or conditional sentences for acts of violence against women; and pointed out that it seemed to be the case that offences of violence against women were considered offences of lower social danger. These are serious criticisms. I would like the Taoiseach to comment on them and on the issue in a general sense.

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