Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

When the Government was formed, our programme for Government clearly stated that Ireland was facing an epidemic of domestic sexual and gender-based violence and over the past three and a half years, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, has been absolutely emphatic in her response to this prioritising the issue like no Minister before her.

She is providing leadership in tackling violence against women, a topic that was left unaddressed by successive Governments for too long. She has unveiled an ambitious new five-year zero-tolerance plan to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and ensure that all aspects of government are involved. She listened to those working on the front line against domestic violence and spearheaded a new domestic violence agency, for the first time bringing together the fragmented responsibility for this issue into one organisation.

She has overseen a substantial increase in funding for NGOs responding to DSGBV - an additional €12 million in budget 24 alone - and has outlined a clear pathway to doubling the number of refuge spaces. She has prioritised legislation to keep women safe, increasing the maximum penalty for assault causing harm, introducing a new stand-alone offence of non-fatal strangulation, championing an offence of stalking and strengthening the law around harassment, and passing Coco's law criminalising non-consentual distribution of intimate images.

It is important that we call out that pernicious suggestion that has featured in the past couple of days that somehow domestic violence is not a real justice issue and that it is somehow a soft-focus issue.

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