Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Is onóir mhór dom a bheith anseo inniu le labhairt faoi Lá Idirnáisiúnta na mBan.

International Women's Day is an opportunity to recall and pay tribute to the women who came before us. The rights we have today are their legacy, won and taken by them, never freely given by others. It is not a cause for celebration, but rather a warning and a reminder. A warning that there are those who would see those rights taken away and a reminder that we owe it to our daughters to deliver those rights yet to be realised.

It is a shame that the least of what we need to do in Ireland is to correct the current Government's ambition. The Government target of achieving 280 domestic violence refuge spaces will still leave Ireland woefully short of the 500 places mandated by the Council of Europe convention on domestic violence. Women are often left in a situation where their only choice is either to be homeless or to return to their abuser. They either have to further up-end young children's lives by travelling further for refuge than they should have to or else return home to their abuser. In Cavan and Monaghan the commitment to open just one refuge portrays an intention to leave the women of one county entirely without one. In the worst case scenarios, when women are murdered, their murderers retain guardianship rights over their surviving children. We have an epidemic of violence against women and children in Ireland. That we have such a shortage of refuge spaces points to the failures of Governments of the past to take domestic abuse seriously, despite their platitudes. That such legislative gaps exist today points to the severe failure of successive governments to address this issue.

A register of domestic abusers is one vital step in protecting women and is crucial for reducing abusers' capacity to abuse. The relevant information exists already within the justice system today and comparable mechanisms exist in other places in the world. There should and can be no cause for delay. I welcome commitments from the Government on these matters but the test is whether the zero-tolerance promises or commitments made in this House today are meaningful. Will we see legislation and policy enacted on this priority or will women in this House rise again in one, two, three or four years time to speak on the very same issues as today?

As the Minister, Deputy Foley, said before she left the Chamber, every day brings a new possibility. As a mother, daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, niece and friend to many great women, I look forward to these new possibilities.

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