Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Coppinger and her group for bringing forward this important motion. I welcome the survivors are in the Public Gallery. They should not need to come here to see this issue addressed. I pay particular tribute to Natasha O'Brien, one of my constituents, for her advocacy in relation to this work.

As a man, I am very conscious of the fact that we are the problem because we are the perpetrators of this violence. I am very clear as a white man in a position of enormous privilege that I want to be a positive role model and an agent for change. This issue permeates society and the fight against this scourge cannot be led by women and women's rights movements alone. This is a global human rights issue. As the author Margaret Atwood once said: "Men are afraid women will laugh at them. Women are afraid men will kill them." As former State pathologist Dr. Marie Cassidy said, which goes to the root of this motion: "It is the man in your bed you should be worried about, not the man under your bed."

The motion contains a number of practical measures. Many of these were also contained in a motion we brought forward last year, so we are very happy to support the motion before the House. Those measures include ending the practice of victim's counselling notes being accessed and read by accused persons during trials and ending character references in cases of gender-based violence. We also need compulsory training for members of the Judiciary to allow them to gain a better understanding of the harm of rape myths. This is all contemplated by the motion.

Domestic and gender-based violence hit a ten-year high in Limerick last year, with more than 2,500 reports of such violence being made. There have been instances in the past of Members of this House providing character references in respect of individuals convicted of gender-based violence and sexual crimes. This should bring shame on all of us.

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