Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister today. It is great to have an opportunity to speak on this matter. I stand in full solidarity with every single woman, survivor and child who has been torn apart and asunder, often physically and emotionally, by domestic, sexual or gender-based violence. Every single day of the week, we are confronted by harrowing stories, brutal killings, names of women we read in the newspaper, faces we see in memorials and families who carry that burden of grief and pain that will never leave them. Their deaths shock our nation. I think of the many stories of death, killing and murder that have changed a nation and forced the system to listen to women who have been forced to normalise abuse. I am talking about those women who fear making it home safely or fear the sound of the door slamming shut behind them and that angry hand or controlling voice they have in their lives.

We all know in this House that the problem does not begin or end with the devastating murders, stories or statistics we read about. Violence against women is not rare. It is widespread and systemic and is tolerated in so many ways. It is tolerated big and small every single day in this country. To use public transport as an example, every time a woman is groped on public transport, they stay silent because they feel no one will believe them or take them seriously or they fear they will be targeted as the one who has no craic in her or has something wrong with her. Women need to be believed and have confidence in themselves to say this is wrong. We need society to say this is wrong. Every time a partner raises their fist or voice, it convinces them they have a right to dominate. Every time a child grows up and learns that abuse is just part of life, we fail as a society.

I know this is important to the Minister and to every single Member of this House. We seek not merely to condemn the acts but to absolutely uproot them from every level of society and to confront them in our culture, courts, communities and homes. Last year, An Garda Síochána received 65,000 domestic abuse calls, that is, 65,000 cries for help. Women's Aid was contacted more than 32,000 times, a record high in 52 years of service. A total of 275 women have died violently since 1996 and nearly half of Irish women have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.

As the Minister knows, I work closely with Women's Aid Dundalk. We are in the process of going to tender and building an incredible refuge service in Dundalk. It has done fantastic work over recent years and we are coming to a point where we will have a top-class refuge, a safe place for women. That needs to be replicated, and Women’s Aid is trying to do that throughout the country. We are doubling those refuges spaces. No child or woman fleeing violence should be told there is nowhere safe for them to stay. As the Minister pointed out, we are updating a school curriculum and funding campaigns around consent because culture change has to start at home.

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