Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Barry raised the issue of gender-based violence, violence against women and femicide, in particular. As I have said previously, I believe we face an epidemic of violence women not just in Ireland, but across the world. As the Deputy said, there have been approximately 20 murders since the killing of Ashling Murphy. By comparison, this year so far, thankfully, we have only had one murder related to so-called gangland violence related to organised crime. One is one too many, but when it comes to the murder of women by men, the figure is closer to 20. In some ways, that puts in perspective how serious this issue is and how we need to be serious, as a country and a Government, in combating domestic and gender-based violence, and that is what we are doing. This is a major priority for Government. I do not think any Minister before the Minister, Deputy McEntee, has prioritised this in the way that she has. There are tougher sentences, new offences, including very specific ones, for example, relating to strangulation, dedicated trained gardaí, special victims units in every region, new women's refuges and safe houses being established all over the country, changes to the law around consent in particular, and public information campaigns on all of those issues, including on image-sharing and so on. A huge amount of work is being done by the Government, led by the Minister for Justice, on this really important issue.

In reply to Deputy Boyd Barrett, I will certainly seek advice and get a note on our obligations under the genocide convention. I did so on the International Criminal Court, when he raised the issue a couple of weeks ago. What he said did not turn out to be legally correct. I will certainly check it out. It is not helpful to get into a debate about what constitutes genocide and what does not.

See this speech in context