Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cairns for quite rightly raising this issue. I also thank her for her words in relation to the Minister, Deputy McGrath - who I join her in congratulating - and the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers.

I want the Deputy to know that we do not just say, "Never again". Never have I uttered those words. What we need to do is to adopt a zero-tolerance approach in Ireland when violence does occur. Violence and attacks and brutality will happen. How our systems respond, how they are victim-centred, how they do not let down the victim, how they should never retraumatise the victim and how they should deal with the perpetrators have to be our national obsession now. I share the Deputy's view. We should absolutely call this out for what it is: it is an epidemic. We live in a country where there is an epidemic. Even in this place, when you try to discuss and raise some of these issues, all sorts of labels get attached in relation to wokery and everything else. This is an extraordinarily serious epidemic. We should all call it out every time when we see misogyny existing, including in public policy debates that happen in this Chamber and the other Chamber, which, in my view, happens on an all too frequent basis.

I very much take the point about the Women's Aid report and the figures we discussed in this House last week. We should, are due and I hope we are going to have a debate, as I agreed to last week, in respect of that report. I would point out, though, that while the numbers are extraordinarily stark, part of it is that we are encouraging more people to come forward to speak up and speak out because we know we live in a society where for far too long things have remained behind closed doors. We need to have a situation where we are always trying to support people in coming forward and seeking help and access. However, the figures are an extraordinarily stark wake-up call for everybody in every part of Ireland.

I am not going to read out a long list of things to run down the clock, but I do believe that many actions have been taken that, genuinely, are positive steps forward. The fact that we now have a single statutory agency called Cuan with legal responsibility in this area for the first time in the history of our State and that we passed the relevant legislation through these Houses is not unimportant. The fact that we have seen more safe houses, in addition to the more traditional model of refuge beds, open across the country is not insignificant. The fact is that we have also introduced a number of pieces of legislation around stalking and non-fatal strangulation. We have reformed things in respect of the family courts and we have doubled the sentencing in relation to assault causing harm, which is the most frequent crime against someone experiencing domestic or gender-based violence.

We do have the Judicial Council, which is absolutely charged with producing sentencing guidelines and with facilitating judicial training. These are two issues that the Minister for Justice is extraordinarily eager to see progress being made on, as am I. My understanding is that the first set of sentencing guidelines is likely to be in the area of domestic violence. We will be seeking an update in terms of a timeline for these.

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