Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

I am going to read out some statistics from last year. There were over 45,000 reports of domestic abuse to Women's Aid, over 22,000 contacts to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, over 49,000 domestic abuse incidents recorded by gardaí and over 65,000 domestic abuse calls recorded by gardaí. Behind every single one of these statistics is a person and they are mainly women, like the women who are here in the Gallery and the women who are watching at home. Women who have hopes, dreams and aspiration and have a right to feel safe. There are also women who are subjected to horrific abuse from another person, mainly a man and mainly a man who is known to the woman. The Minister mentioned that it is really incumbent on men to call out other men when it comes to situations like this. The last time I spoke in the Dáil about calling out other men I received a tirade of abuse on social media from a certain cohort of men. I tell them to have a good look at themselves and cop themselves on about why they are calling out somebody for calling them out on their behaviour.

I will mention a situation in my area that is related to refuges. We do not have enough of them and the Minister has acknowledged that. A woman I assisted in my constituency office last year had to flee her home with her children for her safety. She found the refuge and got all the support a refuge offers, but after a period she needed to leave the refuge. However, the perpetrator was still in the family home refusing to leave and exercising coercive control over his family. The council will not get involved because it just looks at statistics. It just looks at the forms that are sent in and does not see the person behind that. It sees the person is adequately housed on paper, but we know that is not the truth. Women are trapped in these situations. It was between staying in a refuge or returning to the family home, which is the home she had to flee for her own safety in the first place. As Deputy Carthy said already, the housing situation is trapping people in violent and dangerous situations. Surely a victim-centred approach can be taken when it comes to domestic violence so victims' and survivors' needs can be placed ahead of the abuser's.

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