Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I support the motion and I thank Deputy Coppinger for using her first opportunity in Private Members' time to raise this absolutely critical issue. There can be no equivocation when it comes to assessing our efforts to end violence towards women and girls in this country. We are simply not doing enough. I say that as a former Minister for equality, I say it as a politician with a long-standing interest in this area and I say this simply as a person living in Ireland today. All of us elected to Leinster House have a responsibility to keep this issue at the forefront of our debates and our legislative and policy efforts.

That is not to say significant work has not been undertaken. We have seen the third national strategy published. We have seen increased investment and the establishment of Cuan; an agency solely focused on DSGBV. I acknowledge the commitment that the then Minister, Deputy Helen McEntee, brought to this area. For my own part, the introduction of five days paid domestic violence leave was an important tool to provide assistance to victims.

I am glad this leave is now in place and that Ireland is one of the first countries in the EU to introduce it. I want to recognise the work that Women's Aid did in supporting the introduction of that policy. However, with all of this, it is still not enough. We know it is not enough as women continue to die violently; three women so far this year according to Women's Aid. These were Paula Canty, Annie Heyneman and Gillian Curran. We are barely eight weeks into 2025 and information about another death is emerging in the past 24 hours. We know it is not enough as the most recent figures show that just over 65,000 cases of domestic abuse were recorded by An Garda Síochána last year. This is a 20% increase over the previous two years and a steady rise of 10% per year each year since 2020. We know it is not enough because we still see that applications for domestic violence protection orders have increased by 25% in the five years up to last September.

Notwithstanding the statistics, it is of course critically important that women and girls who have been victimised can access the support of An Garda Síochána and the Courts Service swiftly and to the fullest extent. This is not always guaranteed and today's motion rightly identifies the many barriers and factors that are working against women and girls who deserve timely, appropriate justice. While all efforts to help victims are absolutely crucial, they are by definition addressing the symptoms of the overriding problem. Prevention is the critically important piece if we are ever going to get this right. This is recognised in the Istanbul Convention but it is not always prioritised in the State's public policy. Prevention was a major focus. It was something the Green Party raised continuously in the last Government, and it is why in the third national strategy published last year there is a lot greater focus on prevention that in the predecessor strategies. This broader strategy recognises a hard truth. Violence against women and girls will remain a feature of our society until we successfully address the root causes and until our preventative effort works. This requires a cultural and a generational shift in attitude. At the heart of it is a necessary shift in male attitudes towards women and girls and a shift in the general societal attitudes about the spectrum of violence and abuse directed at women. We know this is possible but it is crushingly slow. The State holds the power to drive this kind of cultural shift forward in our educational curricula, through public information and through a zero-tolerance criminal approach. This is recognised in the motion today and I welcome that.

I am glad that this motion will be agreed but I come back to my earlier point. There is no doubt that all of us in this House share the goal of ending gender-based violence in this country but, as with anything, genuine progress will take a laser-like focus at the top of Government. The Minister of State and also the senior Minister will be bombarded with competing agendas but they cannot let this particular issue slip. They need to drive forward change and progress at an even greater pace. Until women and girls stop being targeted, victimised and killed, we as a country will never have done enough.

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