Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)

I commend my colleagues Matt Carthy and Maria McCormack on bringing this critical Bill forward. Above all, I welcome the women in the Gallery and thank them from the bottom of my heart for all that they have done and all that they continue to do. I want them to know that it really matters and that it will bring about the change that we need to make when we stand together.

I believe the Minister knows that we have confidence and faith in him that he will make the changes that are needed here so that we are not coming back year after year doing the same thing over and over again. He will know that domestic and sexual violence is not treated as a crime and there is not zero tolerance because if there were, we would not be standing here again. He also knows that women and children have a right to feel safe. The bottom line is that they have a right to feel safe. This Bill will obviously help that in the situation where the perpetrators more often than not are not obliged to fulfil even the lenient sentences that they get.

The Minister will know that we operate in systems that condone domestic and sexual violence. I see it all the time in courts. I see decisions made where it is quite obvious that those who are making the decisions do not understand the dynamics of domestic violence and they do not understand the minds of the abusers who are in front of them.

I have seen so many letters come before court that say: "he was a member of the GAA club" or "he is an outstanding citizen", and all of these excuses that are made. When domestic violence and sexual violence crimes are committed, they are committed by the perpetrator knowing what they are doing. They make that choice. They choose to do this, and they will continue to do it until the sanctions reflect the gravity of what they do. The destruction of the lives of women and children has to stop, and it has to stop now. The cost of gender-based violence to individual lives, to families and to communities is just too high and it continues decade after decade and year after year. It is time to shout "stop". Obviously, we need more services. We need resources. We need all of that desperately. There are too many counties that do not even have a refuge within them. We need the perpetrators to stop, and they will only stop if we make them stop. It is within the will of the justice system here to make them stop if the sanctions are severe enough. We have to create communities that are free of the crime of domestic and sexual violence and of gender-based violence.

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