Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In 1974, a groundbreaking book about a women's refuge in Chiswick, London entitled Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear was published. Fast forward 49 years to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland publishing an article entitled, "Why is sexual violence still hidden in plain sight in this era of oversharing?" about domestic violence and gender-based violence.

Forgive me if I am sceptical because, as Deputy Coppinger said, we have listened to the news this morning about what seems another murder of another woman, this time in her 80s. Since I entered the House in 2016 along with all my colleagues on this side of the House, and with some of Government backbenchers, we have repeatedly spoken on the failure to deal with domestic violence and gender-based violence.

Actually, I am most uncomfortable with the word "domestic". It reduces the importance, the seriousness and the significance of criminal activity. I would like to get rid of the word "domestic" and treat violence for what it is. I am also unhappy with words like "epidemic" and "pandemic". This is not an epidemic. These are serious crimes committed, for the most part, by men.

Since 2016, we have fought and fought and pushed the Government. My worry is there has been no proactive action on behalf of the Government. It has all been reactive, pushed from the Opposition, and we have been pushed from the organisations on the ground. Women's Aid, in particular, this week have come out and I will come back to that in a minute but we have pushed the Government.

The Government produced a number of reports finally before it got to the zero strategy and what was produced was an audit of refuge services by Tusla, which was completely inadequate, and then the Department did a review of the structures and services there, which said there was an absence of data, an absence of funding, fragmentation, gaps and deficits. That was in 2021 or 2022.

In 1974, Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear was published and we cam fast forward to a report telling us to there is a lack of data, lack of funding, deficits and complete gaps. All of the time, the numbers for violence are increasing and increasing and the world is becoming a more unsafe place for women and for families. The Minister referred to a figure and said unfortunately most of it is within families; it absolutely is. The figures are shocking; 63% of women were killed in their own home, 53% were killed by a partner or ex-partner and almost nine out of ten women know their killer.

My difficulty when we have debates like this - and I am really appreciative that Deputy Coppinger has used her time - we are talking and talking; I have been talking since 2016. I am very familiar with the services on the ground. Back in 2002, SAVI produced a groundbreaking report called Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland. We utterly ignored it. The prevalence of violence against women was clearly set out and then we fast forward to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland telling us it is hidden in plain sight.

We then begin to ask ourself as legislators; what is happening here? What do we mean when we say we want zero tolerance? We never rolled out enough refuges. I say that with caution because Safe Ireland - and I am somebody who has called for more refuges and will continue to do so - has called on the Government to imbed a full infrastructural response to domestic abuse at local level, rather than prioritising new refuge spaces. The CEO said: "We are very, very concerned that there will be a focus on refuge building at the expense of the real response to new refuge spaces."

More has to be done and the Government must take it seriously. I am almost out of time so I do all of that to emphasise we are beyond talking. Refuges are the most basic thing we can provide but they should be redundant in the future if we are to seriously tackle and deal with domestic and gender-based violence.

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