Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the ladies in the Visitors Gallery and I thank them for having their voices heard. Three years on from the Government launching its zero-tolerance strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence much remains to be done. We still do not have a domestic violence refuge in every county. Though I welcome the Government recommitting to the provision of refuge services in both counties Cavan and Monaghan, we need to see action. We need to accept the recommendations of the Oireachtas justice committee in relation to the ban on the use of counselling notes in trials. We need to see greater investment in the protective service unit of An Garda Síochána and so much more. When speaking with survivors of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, one of the most harrowing aspects is the number of instances whereby a person is effectively forced to relive their trauma if they report it to An Garda Síochána, during trial, after trial, after sentencing and when that person is released. If the person who abused them chooses to force them to relive their trauma there and then, in their own community, in their local shop or anywhere at all, they have no recourse available to them. I commend my party and constituency colleague, Sinn Féin spokesperson on justice, Deputy Matt Carthy, and I also commend Senator Maria McCormack for bringing this legislation forward which seeks to address this injustice. The mechanism of the civil protection order is not contentious, given it is already utilised in harassment legislation and, crucially, by allowing for its imposition at sentencing it can alleviate the fear, anxiety or stress that survivors might feel looking ahead to a day when a person who abused them is released back into society. I welcome that the Government is not opposing this Bill. It will not be a solution for the large number of challenges facing us in tackling domestic, sexual and gender-based violence but it can be one important component in providing some level of relief to survivors. We now need to see it passed through the Houses as quickly as possible.

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