Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)

Ar dtús báire, gabhaim buíochas le Sinn Féin as ucht an Bille seo a chur faoi bhráid na Dála anocht.

Today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. While I acknowledge things are changing slowly and that we have had the establishment of Cuan and the zero tolerance strategy, the fact of the matter is that when it comes to violence against women, far too often we are reactive and not proactive. Violence against women is at a crisis level in this country. I know from my clinics the number of women who come to me in genuine fear. They are petrified, have no place to go and are often the ones who are forced to leave the family home in which abuse has been perpetrated against them.

Victims and survivors of sexual violence in this country have a real and genuine fear of the release of their perpetrator. Along with several others, I attended a briefing some weeks ago organised by Deputy Carthy and Senator McCormack, and I was genuinely shocked by what we heard. We heard from Leona O'Callaghan, Sonya Stokes and Shaneda Daly. Leona, whom I know personally from Limerick, is a survivor of sexual violence who came forward against her abuser. He was sentenced in 2018 and received a 17-year sentence. The man who abused her is not particularly old. He is a strong, violent man and he was supposed to be released in 2027. That has been pushed out nearer to 2030. When he is released, there is nothing to stop him being in a SuperValu store near Leona, using the same gym as her, going to the same church as her or whatever else. While nothing can be done retrospectively in this legislation, we have the power to change things going forward. We can introduce a provision in law whereby a person against whom an offence of sexual of violence is found to have been committed may be granted a civil protection order. While every survivor may not want that, the option would be available and would give peace of mind to those who need it. This would ensure that perpetrators of sexual violence would not be able to approach their victim, stand behind them in a queue or be in close proximity to the victim.

The victims of sexual violence often feel ignored, retraumatised and dismissed because the legal system is designed, by virtue of its adversarial nature, almost to break them. Their counselling notes can still be used against them in a rape trial. I acknowledge the work that Deputy Coppinger has done in this regard. There are nine counties in Ireland that have no refuge space. That is shameful.

Today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. What better way of signalling our support for this important day than by actually doing something, by doing what we can to move this Bill to the next stage? This is a practical legislative step. Together we can make a change. We must stand with all victims of sexual violence. We must have zero tolerance within our own organisations. When victims come forward, they must be listened to and believed. I was struck when I met this particular group of survivors about the real, genuine and palpable fear that each of these women have of the person who abused them appearing before them. One of the things that stuck with me was the description these survivors gave of the eyes, of looking into the eyes of the individual who perpetrated such violence against them, and the fact that they are terrified that the eyes of these people in some cases are coming between them and their night's sleep. We have an opportunity here to do something tangible and practical.

See this speech in context