Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the House for facilitating this important debate. Previous contributors referred to watershed moments and Groundhog Day. Unfortunately, we have had those too many times. We devoted an entire afternoon in the Dáil to statements about the late Ashling Murphy 12 or 18 months ago and the issue was in sharp focus, both in the media and in political discourse. It was being spoken about in every household in Ireland. Issues then go out of focus, which is, unfortunately, how the media cycle works and how life goes. Another issue fills its place a couple of weeks later and takes over the airwaves, and it gets forgotten, which is not good enough. I am not laying that blame at the Minister's door. It is just how society works, and it is horrendous.

We are very much talking about this again in light of the brave and tenacious Natasha O'Brien, who decided she would not be a victim who takes this lying down. She is willing to take on the courts system and the State and she will vindicate her position as a victim. I do not want to say too much about that case, given it is sub judice and it would be wrong to elaborate on it, but the State has eyes on that case, and rightly so.

Like others, I think there needs to be significant investment in women's shelters. I am sure most TDs have dealt with domestic violence issues through their constituency offices, and the first fear the women generally have relates, naturally, to the splitting-up of the family and where her children will go with her. It is usually about what roof she will have over her head and, as Deputy Cairns said, in some counties it is not obvious what pathway to accommodation and safe refuge there will be for that woman. Where there is accommodation, it is often taken up, because women do not just stay in a shelter but transition to HAP housing or social housing. As we all know, that supply chain is limited at the moment, so the shelter is often chock-a-block and full to begin with, and there is no shelter for many of these women to go to. The issue will need a lot of investment.

Since the advent of the Nice treaty, lots of people have come to Ireland from eastern European countries with many from beyond the European Economic Area. We have Ukraine war refugees and people have come here seeking international protection. We, therefore, have a huge new population in Ireland, with many new languages. I recently dealt with an individual in my constituency who has nobody. She has a husband and children but she has been subjected to domestic violence on an ongoing basis. I have had to meet her privately and take phone calls from her late at night. Sometimes, she has to go down to the garden or sit out in the car to make those calls. Language is a barrier and she has limited English, and she has no family. Usually, when women are faced with domestic violence, as has been borne out in many studies, their first port of call, unfortunately, is not An Garda Síochána but their sister, best friend or mother. When they are living overseas, however, and many countries away, it is very hard for them to have an immediate support group, so there are very few people to whom this woman can go. The capacity of An Garda Síochána to provide care and support to someone like her needs to be looked at. It is very difficult for people to engage with the support services but it is even more difficult when their natural support scene is not here in Ireland but overseas.

There needs to be a deep analysis of Garda vetting. Every TD, as I said, deals with housing issues, and it is a standard feature of a housing application that once a form is submitted and lodged with the council, it goes off for six or seven weeks to the Garda National Vetting Bureau, but we know very little about what happens there. We have been told anecdotally that the most important issue the bureau looks at is whether the housing applicant has a history of drug dealing because, naturally, we do not want to land a drug dealer in the middle of a housing estate and have a potential contagion effect, with more people forming a drug habit or buying from him or her. A broader net of issues needs to be considered as part of Garda vetting. Both through parliamentary questions and at a joint policing committee level in County Clare, I have probed the types of background checks that are carried out at this phase. I know of several examples of convicted paedophiles, named in the newspaper, with court orders against them, who have served time but are able to get through those Garda vetting procedures. It is arguably far more treacherous and dangerous to have somebody with a conviction and a habit of being a sexual predator living on a housing estate than to have somebody who is dealing drugs. That needs to be looked at.

So too does the whole issue of domestic violence in the context of Garda vetting. Each time my wife was expecting a baby, I took time off work and accompanied her to the first scan appointment at the maternity hospital. I recall that after the woman has had her bloods taken and gone for a scan, she is brought into a small private room. I assume this is standard in the maternity hospital system.

There is a social worker and a nurse and they ask standard questions such as, "How is your home environment? Are you supported?", but what they are basically trying to get to is, "Are you vulnerable? Are you at risk in your home environment?" Surely that sort of question needs to be asked as well when someone is making a housing application We are allowing far too many people with shady and dodgy backgrounds to take up council housing stock that is paid for by the taxpayer who is handing them over the keys. They are living there for a lifetime, yet we are supposed to have some kind of watchdog on their application as it goes through in those initial weeks. That needs to be examined as well.

Growing up I always felt relatively safe on the streets. There were parts of this city and parts of my home county - name a town or city in Ireland that does not have this - that have parts that do not feel so safe. It was not really until the death of Ashling Murphy and the national debate that sparked that I really became aware of having male privilege, which we are often accused of, but we do. I, as do the other male Members of this House, have the privilege of being able to walk most Irish streets by night in the dark with relative safety and ease. I do it here every Wednesday night. When the voting block is over, I usually go off down the streets of Dublin to clear my head, get fresh air, and make a couple of phone calls home - some to constituents but usually to my mam and to my wife. They are usually absolutely appalled when I tell them where I am, where I am walking and where I intend to go. It is something they would never see or never think of doing.

Of everything we will discuss today, a lot of this belongs to An Garda Síochána, the Courts Service and the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, and they will deal with that. For the women of Ireland who, fortunately, do not interface with domestic violence - many thankfully will not interface with this during their lifetime - they too should feel safe going down the streets of Ireland and that is not the case for too many of them. I was quite shocked that what I would consider to be standard practice for most of the men here is not for them. They are watching over their shoulders and not feeling safe. More can be done on that. Generally, by night and even by day even, women should feel relatively safe and when going into multistorey car parks not having to stay on the phone to someone in case there is someone in there or having to lock the car door at traffic lights and so on.

There is more to be done, yet I am conscious in this debate that no matter what is done, it will never eradicate the dark depths some people go to perpetuate violence against others. It is just awful. Some of the matters being debated are sub judice. I hope justice prevails and a more robust approach can be taken.

I reiterate my point on Garda vetting and protecting those who have come to Ireland - be they EU citizens without skills in the English language, people from non-European countries, and international protection applicants or those who have come from Ukraine - that the An Garda Síochána has the still set at regional divisional level so we can also support them. There is a deficiency within the Garda in this regard and when there is no one to turn to, the last person someone would probably turn to is a garda. We need more of an initial support net to reach those people.

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