Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I has become obvious that courage is a contagious feature of humanity. I hope the courage these women have shown will have more contagion for those who are victims of gender-based violence, rape, etc., and allow them to speak out. Explanations were given earlier for all that is being done and they sound very impressive but there is a problem with not having timelines given to us. We know it has been more than two years since the murder of Ashling Murphy. We are not seeing an improvement in the numbers of refuge spaces and in court procedures. For example, rape victims still have to hand over their therapy and counselling notes to the perpetrator.

That has to end. It is the most cruel thing you could do to somebody who will be retraumatised all over again in court. There is also a problem with the Judiciary. I am not going to say too much about it. It is staring everybody in the face. Perhaps they need to be educated, reformed or something. There is definitely a problem with the approach and the mentality with which they face these things.

On foot of a discussion this morning on the radio, I also think we are overlooking a big trick here which is reform of the sex education programmes in schools to include consent and to include more understanding of biology. There is a serious level of violence against trans people in this country. They are something like four times more likely than you or me to experience violence. One of the highest rates of hate-motivated violence is against transgender people. About 13% of transgender people have reported being physically or sexually assaulted or threatened with violence because of transphobia. That compares to an average of 8% across the European Union. We are missing a trick on reforming the education system and doing it quickly. My concern in speaking with you here today, Minister, is the question of timing, of when we get these things done. We cannot just keep facing more never-agains every other day of the week. We do hear of them every other day of the week, even if they do not all come into this House. Natasha O'Brien and Bláthnaid Raleigh certainly jump out but there are other cases in which the names are not given. We see the cases in court every day. I want to say here publicly, shame on those who try to point the finger at immigrants, men of colour, for being the most danger to women. That is not the case at all. Those who are most dangerous to women are those who are known to them. More than 80% of transgender violence and sexual violence is carried out by partners or ex-partners.

I want to refer to a report which the Minister knows about. It was commissioned in the Cherry Orchard Dublin 10 area as a consequence of a lot of campaigning work done by my colleague, Councillor Hazel de Nortúin. I have seen the Minister at the meetings in Cherry Orchard and I know she put a lot of effort into making sure this happened. This report, "Unveiling the Shadows", really does shine a light deep into an impoverished and excluded community where the cuts and austerity hit harder than anything else back ten or 12 years ago. The Minister at the time said they were picking the low-hanging fruit first and deliberately targeted family support services, addiction support services, youth services, which had cuts of 50% to 80%. Those cuts have never been fully restored. In places like Cherry Orchard, the wrap-around supports are exactly what is needed, as intervention can be made with children who suffer the trauma of domestic and gender-based violence, as well as with the women, mostly, but also sometimes men. The problems are compounded by a housing system that is really broken when it comes to the poorest and the most marginalised. We should now start advocating for the family home to be the refuge for those who suffer, where the perpetrator is forced to exit the home and leave those who suffered the violence in the family home. Otherwise we are going to be chasing our tails, particularly since the State has provided less than half of what the Istanbul Convention outlines. I pay tribute to Councillor de Nortúin and all the brave women who are fighting hard to end the culture in this country.

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