Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)

I am just telling the Minister what the visitors told me. In fairness, I do listen to women when they contact me.

I attended a conference in Limerick on Saturday on domestic and gender-based violence. The event was hosted by my colleague, Kathleen Funchion, MEP. It brought together experts - solicitors, gardaí, rape crisis representatives and, most importantly, many survivors of abuse. It was compelling to hear their stories, and to hear positive ideas and suggestions to make the system better, and on how we can educate young people so that the new generation will neither inflict nor suffer the pain. Those who spoke were clear that individuals within the system in many cases are compassionate, but the system itself is not.

Domestic and gender-based violence is an all-of-society issue that impacts every socioeconomic group. It is not just about physical violence but the loss of financial independence and other forms of coercive control. Gender violence is as prevalent now as it ever was, only some of the weapons have changed. The figures from 2024 demonstrate this. One in five young women are or have been subjected to intimate relationship abuse. In 2024, gardaí responded to an average of 1,250 domestic abuse incidents per week. These are incredible figures that should really shame all of us.

For me, the most compelling contribution on Saturday came not from the expert panellists but a contributor from the floor who is here in the Gallery. She has survived sexual violence, which she endured as a teenager. She gathered the courage to approach the Garda and, thankfully, following a lengthy court process her abuser was jailed. She also spoke about her tension and fear about her abuser's eventual release. She is from Limerick, which is a small enough city, where urban estates are only a short distance from each other. She is from such an estate, as was the criminal. She told of the abuse and of the anxiety faced by survivors during the court process they have to go through. She spoke of the knots in her stomach, the long trips to the court in Dublin to speak as a witness, and having to compose herself, only to have the sitting postponed a couple of times. She spoke about having to sit in the same room as the man who had abused her, having to recount the details of her life in front of a room of strangers and of the mental toll this took on her. She told us how she now has sleepless nights as his release date approaches. If the legislation we propose had existed, once her abuser was convicted of his crime of sexual violence, a court could have imposed an order restraining him from approaching her on release. The introduction of civil protection orders is a sensible step for survivors. I urge all to support them. This is just one piece of the puzzle we need to address.

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