Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)

I am glad to get the chance to talk on this very important motion. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing it forward. I welcome the ladies in the Gallery who are here to campaign for justice. Like all of the other women out there who are being abused, they are depending on Dáil Éireann to see after them and to uphold their right to live and carry on where they have always been, in their own local areas. It was said that there is an urgent need for robust enforcement of protection orders. We should develop a strategy to ensure that. Deputy Boyd Barrett said that the councils should play their part in moving the woman from her house. I think the man she is afraid of should be moved out of the area rather than the woman having to move. She did nothing wrong. These enforcement or protection orders are not symbolic. They should be enforced. We should ensure that, whatever way this is done, the women will have freedom to live where they have lived or where they want to live. If they want to move, that is fine, but they should not have to move so as not to see or be intimidated by an abuser. They should be seen after.

We have heard all the stories and we know all the dreadful and horrible things that happened to women in our country over a number of years. So many have been murdered, maimed, badly injured and hurt. It is severely difficult for us to believe that such things could happen in our country. We must seek to close the gap and put a stop to this for once and for all. The Minister is bringing forward his own Bill. If there is any way we could strengthen it using anything from this Bill, we should do so to ensure the best possible outcome for girls and women of all ages and to ensure they are properly catered for and seen after.

These constant abusers get the facility of legal aid. That should only happen once or twice at the very most. These abusers are horrible people and repeatedly get the facility of legal aid. It should be cut to two rounds of legal aid at most. After that, lock them up. They should not get fair play after that.

We must ensure the appropriate safeguarding of all victims and all those who are vulnerable. I think especially of young disabled children and non-verbal children. We must seek to protect them at all costs. They depend entirely on the system and our laws to protect them. If enforcement is weak and they are left exposed to harm, that is a failure of our justice system.

I think Deputy Mattie McGrath was to speak. I will just say that this is a very important matter for all of us to deal with. Women are physically weaker than men. Men should not be left to abuse, hurt or kill them, as has been happening. We must make it ever harder for them. In a minority of cases, men get abused. We cannot allow that either. That has happened from time to time but it happens far less often. It is the other way 99% of the time.

We are depending on the Ministers to expedite the Bill and to bring it forward, and also to ensure that in the next 12 months it is sorted out once and for all. It is going on for long enough.

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