Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Coppinger for bringing forward this motion, but I do so with a heavy heart. The truth is we do not take this issue seriously. Let us face it, if we were serious about tackling violence against women - sexual, financial, coercive control and all these aspects - we would be doing something about it. We are not. I looked at the aid granted and the total is twice as much as what the scanner in the National Gallery of Ireland cost. We do not take this issue seriously. We do not have the sanctions in place first of all. Why do perpetrators do it? They do it because they get away with it and they are allowed to get away with it over and over again. How many women could be alive today if we took this issue seriously? We talk about zero tolerance. If we had zero tolerance for domestic violence, we would not be doing what we are doing and we would certainly have a proper justice situation.

We do not have that. Day after day, we are putting children in very serious and dangerous situations by making them spend time with perpetrators. I know of cases where judges have made children go to see the perpetrators and spend time with them after they have threatened to kill them. That is our law. These are the laws that are there to protect people. We make it impossible for women to leave, not least because of the housing situation and the difficulty of bringing their children with them. There are so many issues. I am fed up with all the talk about it and the failure to do what needs to be done to prevent violence against women and domestic violence. I have been working in this area for more than 20 years and I do not see the progress that is needed and that is talked about over and over again. I agree that we need more refuge places, but we must stop people doing it in the first place. We must call them out - men and women - to stop them doing it.

I commend the organisation, Beyond Surviving. I met Ciara last weekend in Castlebar. The organisation is hugely important. Why are we not bringing in Clare's law and Jennie's law? The Government has the support of the entire House to enable it to do that. If there is a will there to do it, we would do it as a matter of urgency.

See this speech in context