Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

However, my fear is that in reviewing it, the DPP will discover that this sentence is not unusually lenient at all and that men routinely beat women to a pulp and walk free from court. Natasha is now known and admired across the country, but she never wanted to be in this position and she should not be. We are familiar with the names of other women too: Elaine O'Hara, Jennie Poole, Nadine Lott, Ashling Murphy, Bruna Fonseca, Anna Mooney and so many more. How many taoisigh have stood there before and spoken about zero tolerance and promised change? How many more women's names will we learn before any meaningful action is taken? How many more taoisigh will stand there?

Tackling gender-based violence is not easy, but an easy starting point should be victims feeling supported by the justice system. If the Taoiseach could respond to what I asked him in my opening contribution in his next reply, that would be really useful. He referred to the sentencing guidelines but said we have them. We do not have them. Can we find out what the delay is? Can we get clarity on the weight of victim impact statements in terms of sentencing, because it is difficult to see how this one was weighed in? We also need to know that perpetrators of abuse are not welcome in our Defence Forces. What is the Taoiseach going to do to ensure that these things happen?

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