Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach as ucht an deis labhairt ar an ábhar fíorthábhachtach seo. I commend the Minister on the interest he has taken in the matter since taking office. I also commend the Minister, Deputy McEntee on the correct focus she placed on the importance of us as a society dealing with the legacy and trauma inflicted by domestic, gender-based and sexual violence.

This was brought into focus as an issue for me when I chaired a meeting of the south Dublin joint policing committee some years ago, when we saw the first set of statistics of crimes after COVID restrictions had started to lift. It became very apparent to us in the chamber, including the senior Garda officers with us, that there was a domestic violence pandemic that had been brought into very sharp focus by the fact that in many cases, women were locked in homes and other places with persons who would threaten their life and physical safety. In many cases it brought into focus the fact that the statistics on domestic, gender-based and sexual violence against women are often just the tip of the iceberg because too many of these incidents go unreported and undisclosed.

We have seen that incidence of disclosures of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is rising at the moment. We heard the references of 32,000 calls to Women’s Aid and 61,000 calls to An Garda Síochána. We also know that despite the zero-tolerance strategies being put in place, these numbers are rising. Part of that may be that women now feel they can come forward and disclose these incidents of abuse, but we also know of many instances from constituency clinics and from speaking to women who have been through the trauma of physical violence in the home, that in many cases they do not feel supported when coming forward and that needs to be the focus of how we address this in the future.

In 2024, the number of instances of physical abuse rose by 22%, sexual abuse by 30% and emotional abuse by 15%. One of the darkest statistics is that five women were killed in violent circumstances in 2024 and more than half of the women killed since 1996 were killed by a current or former intimate partner. This shows there is an epidemic we need to address. That is why laws such as Valerie’s law and Jennie’s law are vital in ensuring the protection of women, men and children throughout the country and need to continue to be enforced and immediately addressed. They are vital in ensuring that victims and their families are not retraumatised by a system that allows offenders to, for example, retain guardianship rights over children.

I welcome the Minister's commitment to ensuring that the compulsory disclosure of counselling notes in such cases that come before the courts is abolished to ensure we do not retraumatise survivors in the place they are supposed to seek justice, hope and support. I am encouraged by the commitment to deliver additional refuge spaces to bring us up to meet the standards that should be there under the Istanbul Convention on domestic violence. We have work to do in that space and I welcome the Minister's accelerated focus on this during his time in the role.

One of the things that brought this into focus is that it is not just a justice-led response but a whole-of-State response. One initiative I am very proud of in South Dublin County Council is that we provided domestic violence training for members of the council staff who deal with victims of domestic, gender-based and sexual violence. This training should be adopted by every public-facing State body, including judges and An Garda Síochána who have made strides in this area, but as recent surveys show, there is room to improve.

Many colleagues referred to the fact that we need a cultural check on this. Misogyny, as it permeates the online world and other spheres of life, cannot be left unchecked. We need to think about public transport, open spaces, walkways and workplaces to make sure they are safe spaces for all women. A number of years ago I was rightly called out when I said that as a dad of three boys, it was incumbent on me to raise my boys to have respect for women. Rights like this should not rely on the goodwill of men; they should be intrinsic to human beings and our laws should honour them as a matter of course. That is why this matter needs to be addressed and at the centre of the Government's focus.

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