Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)

I thank the Minister for his detailed speech. Let me recognise the progress made in terms of legislation. We are on our third national strategy. We have an action plan. The Minister is promising three pieces of very important legislation in regard to the removal of guardianship rights for a person who has been convicted of killing, the issue of counselling records which has already been referred to and needs more detail and teasing out, and Jennie's Law. I welcome all of that. I welcome the extra money for Cuan and for refuges. Once again, I will put it in perspective because we have so much legislation - I thank the Library and Research Service for its digest which outlines seven pieces of legislation from 2017 up to 2024 - one would think we should not be here talking about domestic and gender-based violence.

Let me first take away the word "domestic" because it minimises crime. Crime is crime. Let me deal with the word "epidemic". It is not an epidemic. An epidemic refers to disease that spreads among the community. This is criminality on every level. Despite all of this legislation I have carefully watched, the numbers are depressingly, shockingly and unacceptably high. In 2024 the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre reported the highest number of disclosures in its 46-year history. Women’s Aid, which is now into its 51st year, disclosed it was contacted 32,144 times, and so on.

I will not use up the short time I have with the figures because they are truly shocking, but let me zone in on something. In 1997, the year my second child was born, we had a task force. Eithne FitzGerald was the Minister at the time. The task force set out in a very detailed way what should happen, particularly in relation to perpetrators. Fast forward 28 years from then and 51 years from when Women's Aid was set up in 1974 and Erin Pizzey's book Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear was published, which is a seminal work. Here we are 51 years later and the figures have gotten worse. The figure has already been given of 275 women murdered since 1996, the vast majority in their own homes or by somebody who knows them. We stand here again, and I do it in shame, actually. I again mention the cost of domestic violence to the economy. The Library and Research Service has zoned in on this.

I will get the exact figure. It is approximately €2 billion per year to the economy alone. If I appeal to the male mind and the male model of economy, on that level alone we are losing a fortune as it costs a fortune. While I welcome the Minister's bone fides, to think that 50-something years after Women's Aid was established we are still clapping ourselves on the back that we are now going to build more refuges to take out the innocent people and allow the perpetrator stay, there is something seriously wrong. Part of the problem is we are describing it as domestic and as an epidemic rather than criminality.

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