Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The struggle for women's liberation and equality has made many advances, primarily as a result of the struggle of women themselves and social movements demanding equality and liberation. Despite the formal acknowledgment and recognition that oppression and all forms of gender-based discrimination women have suffered should end, they persist. That is why it is important to celebrate International Women's Day and to continue the fight for equality and liberation for women. There are many issues that could be raised in this regard. The scourge of domestic and gender-based violence is one that we have still failed to eliminate. The State continues to fail to provide the supports necessary for women who are the victims of such violence. My area, for instance, is one of a small number where there is still no domestic violence refuge at all. We have been promised one with 24 places. We were told recently that this is to be reduced to 12. Even the 24 places we were promised represent half of what would be necessary to reach the requirements set out in the Istanbul Convention. We have failed to meet those requirements across the country. While lip service is often paid to the need to eliminate the scourge of domestic violence and provide supports for women who are victims of it, we do not put in the supports necessary. That is shameful and we need to do so as a matter of urgency.

In light of what is happening in Gaza, it is important to remind ourselves that 70% of those who have been massacred by Israel were women and children. Of the 30,000 people murdered by the genocidal Israeli attack over the past five months, 70% were women and children, totally innocent and butchered by Israeli troops with guns provided by the United States, Britain and Germany. The so-called civilised democratic states of the world pay lip service to the idea of women's equality and then provide the weapons to massacre women and children on an industrial scale. That brings shame on the so-called western world, and it is one of many reasons people need to get out on the streets next Saturday on the demonstration for solidarity with Palestine, which is also linked to International Women's Day.

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