Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to come back to this important subject as the third national strategy is prepared and published. I want to use this opportunity to recognise why we are doing this and to keep the awareness of why we are doing this at the forefront of our minds.

I acknowledge the presence of Deputy David Stanton, who, when he was with the Department of Justice, brought through the groundbreaking legislation on coercive control and who has chaired the interdepartmental group on gender violence for some time. I also acknowledge Deputy Alan Farrell, who has done huge advocacy to raise awareness around how women feel at risk in various different situations, including while on public transport and while out and about. Deputy Farrell has been a huge advocate and champion in trying to advance the cause against sexual and gender-based violence.

Although we have had the very serious outpouring of care in the response after the death of Ashling Murphy, it is important that we remember all of the women who have died as a consequence of femicide. The Ceann Comhairle will be aware that we are trying to do this throughout the year to remember the women at different stages. I will take the opportunity now to read into the record of the House the names of the women who died in the months of May and June since 1996. In the month of May there were 21 women: Angela Collins, Kitty Gubbins, Georgina O'Donnell, Helen Donegan, Martina Halligan, Donna Cleary, Patti Bainbridge, Mairéad Moran, Niamh Murphy, Marie Hennessy, Breda Cummins, Rita Apine, Anastasia Kriégel, Mary Ryan, Lorraine Crowley, Georgina Eager, Siobhan Stapleton, Bente Carroll, Patricia Murphy, Patricia O’Connor, and Giedre Raguckaite. In the month of June there were 12 women: Mandy Wong, Sinead Kelly, Gertrude Dolan, Veronica Guerin, Karen Guinee, Sara Neligan, Tracey O'Brien, Jolanta Lubiene, Lynn Cassidy, Antra Ozolina, Skaidrite Valdgeima, and Valerie French Kilroy. These names are from the Women's Aid Femicide Watch, which was published in March 2022.

I shall now outline some of the figures: 249 women have died violently between 1996 and 2022; 18 children have died alongside their mothers; 158 of the women died in their own homes; 196 cases have been resolved; in the 87% of cases that have been resolved, the women were killed by a man known to them; 13% of the women were killed by a stranger; and one in two victims were killed by a current or former male intimate partner, which is 55% of the resolved cases. It can, of course, be a woman of any age but women under the age of 35 make up 50% of the cases in Ireland. In almost all murder-suicide cases, which is 22 out of the 23, the killer was the woman's partner.

The reading of the women's names into the record is more important than I had realised. I was contacted by a woman last week who reminded me about one of the women, whose name I read out previously, who had died in 2004. They had known each other and the woman rang to tell me the story of how she had pleaded with the woman not go back to that house and how she felt it was only going to end one way. She spoke of how it matters to people, to the friends of the victims, to their families, to the nieces and nephews, to the children and to the brothers and sisters of victims that we remember these women and that we remember why we are doing the work on the third strategy. They were voiceless in death. Unless we take this time - and I am glad of these few minutes - to acknowledge them here they will remain voiceless and their experience will remain voiceless. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to do it this evening.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank Deputy Carroll MacNeill for raising this matter. You do us all a service by naming the women involved. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, for being here to take this matter.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy for reading those names into the record of the House. It is important to remember that these were women with families, and their lives were cut short tragically and violently. It is very important that we acknowledge and remember them. I thank the Deputy for doing that. I also acknowledge our colleagues Deputies Stanton and Alan Farrell in the work they have done around coercive control and attacking gender-based violence. It is very important that collectively we work collaboratively across the House in tackling this issue.

Tackling domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, DSGBV, in all its forms is a key part of the commitment of the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, to ensuring that everybody feels safe, and is safe, in our communities. This commitment has the full support of the Government. We have been working on a number of fronts to combat DSGBV and to ensure comprehensive supports for victims. The Deputy will be aware that the Minister, Deputy McEntee, along with the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, commissioned an independent audit of how responsibility for DSGBV is segmented across government.Separately, Tusla conducted a review of accommodation services for victims of DSGBV. Both of these audits were carried out with a view to determining what efficiencies and improvements need to be introduced in how we manage DSGBV responses and services.

On foot of these audits, and following extensive consultation with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, the Department of Justice will now have responsibility for funding of local refuges, Rape Crisis Centres and associated helplines for victims of DSGBV, while continuing to lead on policy in this area. As part of this, the establishment of a new statutory agency to address DSGBV is under consideration. In tandem, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, has been working on a whole-of-government strategy on DSGBV.

This strategy will be the most ambitious to date and will be structured around the four pillars or goals of the Istanbul Convention, namely, prevention, protection, prosecution and co-ordinated policies. It will set an overall goal of zero tolerance in our society for DSGBV. The strategy has been developed in partnership with the sector to ensure it is targeted, comprehensive and effective in achieving all of the goals set out. Earlier this year, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, briefed those working in the sector on the progress of the strategy and, as part of that ongoing consultation, a wider public consultation run by the Department of Justice concluded in March. Officials in that Department are currently working to finalise the strategy for submission to Government in light of submissions received in this final consultative phase.

To deliver on the high ambition of the strategy, it will be accompanied by a detailed action plan for the rest of this year and next. This action plan will ensure our work is targeted, precise and deliverable. It will set out how each of the aims will be achieved, which Departments and agencies are responsible for them, and the timeframe for delivery. The Minister intends to bring both the finalised strategy and the action plan to Government in the coming weeks, well before the summer recess, and they will be published as soon as possible thereafter. I commend the Minister for her work. She is taking this issue very seriously, to the point of acting with determination and a sense of urgency, which we all want over the next number of years and beyond.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Femicide is the most extreme end of gender and sexual violence. However, it is part of a bigger problem and what leads to it is a cultural acceptance of entry-level harassment and misogyny, which Deputy Alan Farrell called out in a very public way in his experience on public transport. It is the controlling behaviours that have been exhibited, which Deputy Stanton tried to address through his legislation on coercive control. People said there was no point, that one could not prosecute a pattern, an idea or a set of behaviours, but that was shown to be wrong. I commend the Garda for following up and prosecuting what people said could not be prosecuted, that is, that controlling and manipulative set of behaviours.

So much of this issue is rooted in education. The Joint Committee on Gender Equality is working away every Thursday morning down in the committee rooms. We have heard from the secondary school students' unions, Safe Ireland and academics. It does not matter who we speak to; it all comes back to education. We need fact-based and consent-based education that respects personhood from the earliest age and is open and transparent about sexuality, facts and equality. Unless every child in Ireland receives this appropriate education, we do not have a chance. When Deputies in this House drop their kids at school they might look around the playground and wonder which of these children will suffer this fate in 20, 25 or 30 years, or any other form of misogyny or harassment, and which of them will be the perpetrators. What are we going to do today and over the next five and ten years that is different from the education I got, or the education other Deputies got 20, 30 or 40 years ago? What are we doing to make it radically different and give us some chance of delivering a better outcome for those children 20 or 25 years from now? Objective education for all children is the only hope of a solution.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The Deputy is absolutely right. Fear of harassment and violence should never be normalised, be it in the home or as people go about their daily life. The prioritisation of this hugely important work is evident in the policy and legislative developments implemented by this Government, as well as those currently being progressed. It is also evidenced by the increased budget allocations that have been secured this year in order to address such heinous and unacceptable behaviour. That said, we know we need to achieve a lot more. We need to increase the provision of refuges and have committed to ensuring that everyone who needs a refuge space will have access to one. As part of its work to finalise the new strategy, the Department of Justice is examining how to advance the recommendations made in the Tusla accommodation review, on both improving the delivery of these spaces and how quickly they are delivered.

The Deputy is correct about education. It is a vital part of this issue. Education must begin in our schools and preschools, in primary and secondary schools and right throughout our education curriculum, in order to ensure girls and women feel safe in their communities. That point is very important. The strategy the Minister is developing will take that whole-of-government approach, including to education. It is vitally important that it does that. There is no doubt that we can break this cycle, collectively, and that is something we are committed to doing. There is a huge responsibility on the education system to try to deliver that. We want to achieve that zero tolerance the Minister has referred to. I commend the Deputy for raising this issue, and not just this evening. She has campaigned and advocated continuously for a complete culture change in how women and girls are treated in our society.