Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)

I thank Deputy Carthy for bringing forward this Bill today. I do not think we can speak enough in this Chamber about domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. Some progress has been made in recent years, such as the establishment of Cuan, the third national strategy and the introduction of domestic violence leave, but the figures speak for themselves. Women's Aid reports that last year over 41,000 disclosures were made to it about the abuse of a woman and over 5,000 disclosures related to the abuse of a child. An Garda Síochána reports that over 65,000 domestic abuse incidents occurred last year and the Courts Service reports that there were over 25,000 applications to the District Court for a domestic violence remedy last year.

In that context, we must constantly seek ways to make the situation better for victims. I urge the Minister to consider the Bill brought forward by Deputy Carthy and move to introduce protection orders that can further enhance victims' safety. Protection orders are a necessity and I urge the Minister to take on board proposals from my party colleague Senator Noonan and his Seanad colleagues in Labour and the Social Democrats, whose joint Bill looks to create indictable offences where the breach of a court order is serious, persistent or violent in nature and to empower the justice system to respond more effectively to patterns of coercive control. That Bill was not opposed on Second Stage in the Seanad and I urge the Minister to take the proposals in that Bill and the Bill before us, tabled by Deputy Carthy, and undertake the badly needed reforms to legislation in this country to protect victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.

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