Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the opportunity to address the House on an issue that is of significant importance and has widespread impact throughout our society. It is the issue of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. The purpose of keeping this issue in the public domain and discussing it within the Houses of the Oireachtas is to ensure that we can identify the appropriate measures to combat it. This is an activity and criminal behaviour within our society that we must make further effort to confront and eradicate. It remains one of the most serious challenges facing our society.

It is important to point out, however, that ongoing criminal acts of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence are not unique to Ireland. I looked at the statistics in respect of the murder or manslaughter of women in Ireland and Northern Ireland. The figures in Ireland are unacceptably high. The figures in Northern Ireland are even higher. I am aware that in other countries around the world, violence against women is an issue that needs to be confronted internationally and nationally.

As I mentioned previously in the House, I had the privilege of launching the Women's Aid report approximately ten days ago. As people will be aware, the detail contained in that report is both sobering and frightening. It shows the rise in the numbers of women contacting that agency for the purpose of seeking to get advice, assistance and help arising from their being subjected to violence and criminal assault. The figures in the Women's Aid report published this year show that 32,000 contacts were made in 2024. That represents a 12% increase on the previous year. We can sometimes get caught up in statistics. We must recall that each of those women who phoned Women's Aid had a personal tragedy and trauma behind the phone call. We need to remain alive to the fact that there are real issues about women in our society. For too long, they have suffered in silence. It is imperative that we make them aware that there is support for them from society at large.

It is timely that we are having this discussion. There is a greater political and public focus on the issue of domestic and gender-based violence than was previously the case. Part of the reason for that, and part of the credit for that, rests with the many victims of this violence who have been prepared to speak publicly. People who are victims and women who speak out provide a stronger voice to other women who may be suffering silently and who may feel that they do not have the power to come forward to make a complaint to An Garda Síochána or even just to report it to agencies such as Women's Aid. I am today reaffirming the Government's unwavering commitment to what I refer to as a "zero-tolerance approach" to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. We need to ensure, however, that the approach operates across our society. It is not just an issue to be discussed by the Minister for justice when launching a Women's Aid report. It must involve a whole-of-government response to combatting this issue.

Recently, through the statutory body Cuan, my Department put out a strategy and implementation plan for how this needs to be approached and confronted. The proposals go all across government. They apply not just to my Department but to other Departments, including the Department of education.

I recognise the excellent work done by my predecessor as Minister, Deputy McEntee. She was instrumental in the establishment of Cuan and raising this issue as the prominent political issue it deserves to be treated as.

Since I took up office as Minister for justice, I have sought to keep focus on it. It is one of my priorities that we have a situation in Ireland where there is growing awareness of the unacceptability of violence against women and girls. I am conscious as well that we put a significant amount into this but, of course, money on its own is not sufficient. There are unprecedented resources, with €70 million being provided in budget 2025 to tackle domestic violence. Since 2020, funding for domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services has tripled. I recently launched the third national zero-tolerance strategy, which is an ambitious national strategy to combat violence against women.

There is also the issue of refuge spaces. I am very conscious that is correctly raised frequently in this House. However, we also need to recognise that the solution to violence against women cannot become just trying to identify an appropriate number of refuge spaces around the country. As has been said previously n this House, in many instances, we have to question why the woman who is the victim of domestic violence is the person in the couple who moves out of the home. We should recognise that there are provisions in place through barring orders to ensure that individuals who are perpetrating violence against women in the home are the ones who should leave the home. Notwithstanding that, there is always going to be a requirement for additional refuge spaces. Funding has been secured for 80 additional refuge spaces, with a commitment to provide 280 spaces by 2026. We will see for the first time in Ireland a network of safe accommodation, as required under the Istanbul Convention, which will include both refuges and safe houses.

I also want to point out that since I became Minister for justice, I have sought to advance and expedite a series of legislative proposals that are necessary and that will make it easier for victims of domestic and gender-based violence. In April, I brought proposals to Cabinet to allow for the removal of guardianship rights of a person who has been convicted of killing their intimate partner under the proposed guardianship of infants (amendment) Bill 2025. That is a piece of work Deputy Carthy is doing at present, as Chairman of the Joint Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, in completing pre-legislative scrutiny in respect of that important legislation. I commend all the individuals in the public realm, particularly Mr. French who has advanced this issue, to ensure it is recognised in certain instances. This is a child protection issue.

In May, I received approval from Cabinet to pursue proposals to limit the disclosure of counselling records in rape and sexual assault cases. That is a provision I have managed to put into the civil law and criminal law (miscellaneous provisions) Bill's general scheme. I hope to introduce that Bill, including the provision in respect of counselling notes, in the Houses of the Oireachtas later this year.

I also received permission from the Government to put into that legislation proposals to prohibit sex for rent. That is something I also want introduced, and hopefully enacted, by the end of this year. I am also happy to inform the House that following extensive engagement with officials in my Department and my colleagues, Deputy McAuliffe and Senator O'Loughlin, and, indeed, the Attorney General's office, I will soon bring forward proposals to create a domestic violence register. I commend Mr. Jason Poole, brother of Jennifer Poole, who has been instrumental in really exhorting and encouraging politicians to proceed with this proposal, which will hopefully be known as Jenny's Law. This proposal will allow for any person who was convicted on indictment of specified offences, including murder, manslaughter or serious assault against an intimate partner or former intimate partner, to be named in a court judgment outlining the sentence imposed. That judgment will be published under a domestic violence register of judgments on the Courts Service website. The sentencing court will retain discretion as to whether such a judgment should be published, which will act as an important safeguard for the victim as the consent of the victim will also be required before such information will be published and available to the public at large. This, it is hoped, will act not only to provide information to intimate partners of those individuals who could pose a risk to their partner's safety, as was the case with the shocking and tragic death of Jennifer Poole, but it should also act as a deterrent to individuals from carrying out such crimes in the future.

We also need to reflect when we are discussing this issue upon the fact that justice in Ireland is required to be administered in public. If a person is convicted of a serious criminal offence in Ireland before the courts, that is a public conviction, and the public are entitled to know about that conviction. I am also conscious of the fact that rehabilitation is an important aspect of our justice system and under these proposals, a convicted person will have the ability to make an application to court to apply to have the judgment removed after three years. I do not see anything controversial or incompatible with the rights of the individual in this proposal. It is unquestionably the case that if people are convicted of serious criminal convictions, that can be publicised. Most nights of the week on the news and in our newspapers, we read about individuals who are convicted of serious offences. However, it appears to be the case that this is done on a very arbitrary basis, and it can be the case that individuals are convicted of serious offences, but people do not get to hear about them because of the fact that there was no journalist in court at the time. In such circumstances, the court shall have regard to any subsequent convictions of the applicant and-or any actions of rehabilitation undertaken by the applicant when considering such an application. The court shall also have regard to the position and views of the victim with regard to such an application. Under this proposal, the court will have discretion to determine whether to publish details of the judgment pursuant to a written judgement, and the court will take into account the nature and severity of the case and other relevant factors. It is my hope to bring forward these proposals to Cabinet in the autumn.

The Government is also determined to break down barriers that have historically silenced victims. Transparency, data collection and evaluation will drive continuous improvement. Again, I want to mention Cuan, the statutory agency responsible for combating domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. It plays a critical role in co-ordinating this multiagency response, ensuring joined-up survivor-centred care and regular reporting on progress and challenges.

In respect of the refuge spaces, a capital programme to deliver domestic violence refuge accommodation is happening at present, and it is a very significant and unprecedented allocation of funding. Cuan has been working in partnership with local front-line service providers, local authorities, the Department of housing and other entities, such as housing agencies, to co-ordinate local actions and support local services with delivery. By the end of last year, almost all priority areas had identified a site, and one new refuge in Wexford had opened and another had started construction.

I am pleased that I have had the privilege of visiting a number of refuge centres since becoming Minister. Earlier this week, I was in Kildare where I visited a refuge centre. I visited a refuge centre in Kilkenny the week before that, one in Limerick with the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, who is beside me, and one in Drogheda. It is important that both I and the Minister of State, as Ministers in the Department, get out and actually see what these refuge centres are like on the ground and provide encouragement to ensure that more of them are created.

There are currently 53 safe home units in place as well, which will be increased by a further 45 planned new safe home units by the end of 2026. In addition to the 141 refuge units at the start of the strategy, 52 new refuge units are planned to be delivered by the end of 2026, and there is a pathway for an additional 50 refuge units to be under construction by that point.

As we enter the final phase of the implementation of the zero-tolerance strategy, it is right to reflect on the substantial progress made since its publication. There has been significant legislative reform, including the enactment of the Family Courts Act 2024. That Act establishes a dedicated family court system, and it will ensure timelier, trauma-informed access to justice. I can stand here and confidently say that the law to combat all forms of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence has been strengthened significantly in recent years. There is also the Sex Offenders (Amendment) Act 2023, which provides for stronger supervision of sex offenders after they are released.

The legislation includes measures strengthening the management and monitoring of sex offenders in the community, including amendments to the sex offenders register notification requirements and a ban on sex offenders working with children or vulnerable people.

The Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provision) Act 2023 increased the maximum penalty for assault causing harm from five to ten years, introduced a new stand-alone offence for non-fatal strangulation and stalking and providing for the making of civil orders restraining stalking conduct and strengthened the law around harassment and ensuring the protection of the identity of alleged victims of harassment and stalking in court proceedings.

The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Act 2024 ensures anonymity for victims in all trials for sexual offences, extends the victim’s right to separate legal representation if they are being questioned about their previous sexual history and ensures character evidence at a sentencing hearing for a person convicted of a sexual offence must be made on oath or via affidavit rather than simply through a letter being sent in via a solicitor.

This legislative reform is continuing. I have touched on the progress we are making to expand refuge accommodation but my Department is also examining proposals to develop a policy on removal orders to take offenders out of the home in high-risk domestic violence and domestic abuse cases, subject to legal considerations. There are mechanisms in place, such as barring orders and safety orders, that are available to women who find themselves in the appalling situation of being subjected to domestic abuse. I also plan to progress legislative amendments to allow for the Garda to share information with schools as a measure to support children and young people who experience domestic violence in the home. We need to progress Operation Compass not only in this jurisdiction but also in the North. I have had an opportunity on numerous occasions to discuss with the justice minister in Northern Ireland, Naomi Long, the issues of violence against women. We can provide each other with information, data and policing support to ensure that throughout the island of Ireland there is a consistent response to the scourge of this violence.

Criminal justice is very important. Sometimes in this House we focus very much on legislative solutions to problems such as violence against women. That is understandable since our primary function is making legislation. However, there is more to resolving this issue than simply drafting laws. We have to recognise that this is a societal issue and as a result, we need to try to ensure there is prevention as well as investigation and prosecution after it occurs.

There has been a significant emphasis on education in the strategy. In 2024, the then Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, introduced a new curriculum for senior cycle on social personal and health education. This tells young people about respectful relationships should be built. It empowers them to recognise and respond to instances of abuse or violence in relationships. We in this House are very aware of the level of information out there and access to depraved material that young people can get online. We need to ensure that we educate young people and try to warn them that the depictions they see of relationships online is not normal and is not acceptable. Unfortunately, a tendency has developed in certain aspects of online material to present women in a very submissive, malleable way and that they are simply there to do what men tell them. We all know that is not only an anachronistic but a deeply offensive representation of women. We need to tell and warn young people about that. That is why we have to have a greater awareness raising. That is why it is so important that this is not simply viewed as a Department of justice issue but that there is also recognition that there it goes all across the Government, particularly the Department of education. The Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy McEntee, is continuing the very good work that the Minster, Deputy Foley started last year on this and is continuing with that.

I want to acknowledge the excellent work of the GAA. Sometimes, as I have said previously, people view this as a woman’s issue or an issue we discuss in certain debates; it is not. It is a societal issue. If we want to break it down on gender lines, it is probably more of a man’s issue than a women’s issue since men are predominantly, if not exclusively, responsible for violence against women. The GAA has recognised its responsibility. It is establishing the game-changer campaign, which uses sports-based advocacy to engage men and boys across communities, challenging harmful norms about the role women should play. This is a three-year initiative led by Ruhama, in partnership with the GAA and the Men’s Development Network that brings the zero tolerance message into clubs and communities in every part of life. There is a really powerful basis for doing that when a great sports organisation like the GAA is behind it.

We also need to recognise, as men speaking on this topic that we also have a responsibility in what we say to younger men and boys to try to ensure they recognise and appreciate that it is unacceptable to use violence within a relationship. I also want to note the Women’s Aid "ally action list" reminds us that every man can teach respect, call out wrongdoing and take action online and offline. If men in our schools, workplaces, sports clubs and homes step up, we can collectively dismantle the environment that allows abuse to continue.

I also want to recognise the excellent work of An Garda Síochána. There was some concern in respect of the Women’s Aid report, which found that 44% of women were dissatisfied with their initial contact with An Garda Síochána. Notwithstanding the fact that the majority were satisfied, that does indicate there is an issue in ensuring gardaí are suitably and adequately qualified. My own assessment and the advice | have received from within An Garda Síochána and, indeed, from people who are victims of domestic violence is that, once the victim gets engaged with the experts within the force, they have a very positive outcome.

The Minister of State, Deputy Collins wants to speak on this matter so I will conclude welcoming the fact that we are having this debate. I thank Members before they make their contributions. There is a general consensus in the House that there is a problem and how it should be responded to. I have no doubt there will be criticism about the number of refuge spaces or the counties they are in. That is a legitimate criticism. We are working on that and it is my responsibility. However, we also need to recognise that this is a much broader problem than just finding safe houses and refuges.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I acknowledge the very fine work of my colleague the Minister in this area and, indeed, the work that has been done across government and beyond to implement the zero-tolerance strategy.

The fight against domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is one we all need to engage fully with. As we have heard from the Minister, affecting substantial change in this area is possible. We can, and will, drive real progress in combating these horrific crimes because we are committed, determined and taking action. It is 2025 and the major obstacle to achieving gender equality in Europe is violence against women and girls. That cannot be allowed to continue. We cannot allow that to continue. We will work with our partners, ensure access to supports for victims, hold perpetrators to account and at the same time challenge and address societal root causes which underpin these horrific crimes.

However, it is really for all of us, as individuals, to realise that we must contribute. To realise that we must, in our everyday lives, do our bit to eradicate existing social and cultural attitudes and contribute to an environment where women and girls feel safe and protected and are safe and protected. There must be zero tolerance. We all have a role to play in this.

Among those playing a starring role are workers in our front-line services and I want to acknowledge in particular the commitment and expertise of our victims' services. These play a vital role in ensuring that when women and families come forward to seek support, they are treated with the highest standard of care, compassion and respect.

The ADAPT domestic abuse service in Limerick is leading from the front in this regard. ADAPT provides care and safety to vulnerable women and children affected by domestic abuse last year, it accommodated 125 families including 158 children at its refuge facility in Limerick. These figures are stark and underscore the urgency with which we all must act to ensure zero tolerance of DSGBV.

It is important to recognise the staff, paid and voluntary, who work with ADAPT and other front-line services across the country, often in difficult and highly pressurised roles, to support those facing some of the most traumatic experiences imaginable. Their knowledge, rooted in years of direct experience, also informs our national strategies and ensures our policies put the experiences of survivors first. They model empathy and understanding in this difficult space that we would all do well to try to replicate.

In conclusion, I want to echo the words of the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, reaffirming the Government's unwavering commitment to that zero-tolerance approach to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. This is not only a justice issue; it is a whole of society issue. It is not something for the Government to tackle; it is for all of us to tackle.

Máire Devine (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I would like to greet the survivors of domestic, intimate partner, sexual and gender-based violence in the Gallery as well as those at home. Some of you may not be able to pursue justice through our legal system for myriad reasons. We see you and we stand with you always.

Every one of us knows a victim of crime in this very broad category, including behaviour which might not previously have been recognised as coercive control, revenge porn and marital rape. Consider that every single person in Ireland knows a victim. They are our friends, neighbours, family members and colleagues. There are more legislative means we can and will employ to help them, but perhaps the most important is to undertake a complete shift in culture and mindset. We can enact as many laws as we want, and we have, but that has not shifted the dial.

Let us face facts. Until we acknowledge that Irish society actively facilitates this abuse and attitudes, and has done for centuries, nothing will change. Ireland is experiencing high volumes of reports of intimate partner violence at truly alarming rates. Our society must adapt to achieve the eradication of this violence and the demeaning attitude towards women and girls which is spreading via disgustingly misogynistic online discourse.

Instead of knowing popstars by their first names, we now know survivors and victims, the Aislings, the Sophies, the Natashas, the Nikitas and so many more. We know others by the legislation named after them, such as Jennies's law and Valerie's law. The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre's recent report on public perceptions of domestic violence show that our young boys and men are developing alarming attitudes to women in a break with their older counterparts. This should set off alarm bells for all of us, and we must all be leaders and shoulder the responsibility of changing our society for the better.

One way we could do this is by exploring a ban on strangulation pornography. Recent research published by the Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy Institute director, Ruth Breslin, indicates that our young people are presenting themselves at accident and emergency departments with strokes, seizures and brain injuries due to acts seen in extreme strangulation porn. It is free, heavily promoted and easily accessible online by anybody with a connected device.

Let me be clear. There is no truly safe way to strangle somebody. Videos on how to breath play safely, which sounds innocuous, are being normalised. We need hard-hitting messages to reach our men and boys who start accessing porn by the age of 11. This is not breath play. There is nothing playful about it. There is reason to be alarmed. We have seen a fivefold increase in a single decade of strangulation sex. It has grown rapidly from niche to mainstream because pornography is normalising it as part of sex.

Such horrific depictions of extreme aggression effectively become our people's sex education. Consensual discussion is welcome, but is undermined by porn and, tragically, easy access to violent porn is grooming our boys into being unwitting sexual perpetrators. Girls curious about sex believe strangulation is a part of intimacy to which they must submit.

I have had these conversations with girls who have been frightened and disturbed. The definition of intimacy is skewed completely by strangulation. Strangulation is identified by An Garda Síochána as a significant factor for homicide among women, but even non-fatal strangulation carries dangerous outcomes, including acquired brain injuries, seizures, paralysis and psychological impacts. Strangulation is one of the most common causes of stroke in women under 40 years of age. We should explore a complete ban on strangulation porn in Ireland, as done elsewhere, along with drastically changing public perceptions of women and girls.

This is a rising emergency in Ireland due to depictions of harmful behaviour which are clearly adversely affecting thousands of young people across Ireland. For the sake of us all, of us we must wholly reject the disrespectful and violent discourse being spread in many online forms and instead rapidly adopt a culture of 100% intolerance. Let us be known globally known as a society that will not tolerate this.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Fáiltím roimh an deis labhairt sa díospóireacht seo. Prevention must be central to how these issues are tackled if we are to make their elimination a real possibility. That means tackling the underlying attitudes that allow such behaviour and crimes to flourish. It means education and speaking out. In particular, it is important for men to speak out to show that this behaviour does not represent masculinity.

As well as tackling the underlying causes of this epidemic of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, we need to ensure that those who are victims of these crimes are supported at every stage in getting to safety, getting justice and rebuilding their lives. That means ensuring gardaí and all those who work in the courts are properly trained to deal with these issues. It also means tackling the delays in the courts and making the judicial process better for victims and survivors.

There are still far too few refuges. I have mentioned my constituency to the Minister on several occasions. His predecessor promised two refuges, but we are instead waiting on one. It is not good enough. We also need to be aware that the situation is made worse by the failure to tackle the housing crisis. Addressing the long-term housing needs of victims and survivors of domestic violence must be at the heart of domestic violence strategies.

Another issue I have raised with the Minister, and which requires an urgent response, is the crisis in civil legal aid for those seeking barring orders who cannot secure legal representation. At the centre of this crisis is the fact that legal aid fees payable to solicitors on the District Court family law solicitors panel for this work is deterring solicitors from taking on cases. The Minister indicated this will be considered as part of the implementation of the report of the civil legal aid report group, which is yet to be published and is due to go to public consultation. Frankly, that is not good enough.

Before concluding, I want to take this opportunity to again ask the Minister for his support for Bill I recently introduced to the House. The Victims of Sexual Violence Civil Protection Orders Bill 2025 will bring forward a new provision in law whereby a person in relation to whom an offence of a sexual nature is found to have been committed by the courts may be granted a civil protection order. That would allow victims to be assured at the time of sentence that their perpetrator will never again be able to intrude on their lives. It is a small but important piece of legislation, and would it would be very helpful if the Minister would give an indication that he is willing to support it.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I would like to acknowledge that the Minister is currently progressing legislative proposals on the guardianship rights of those who have murdered their spouse as well as the disclosure of counselling notes. It is important that we get the proposals right and it is welcome that they are progressing through the Oireachtas.

I am delighted to hear that the Minister is visiting refuges, but an area that remains of particular concern to me, because it impacts my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan, is that of refuge spaces in the constituency. Cavan and Monaghan continue to be among the nine counties which lack a domestic violence refuge. While I welcome the commitment of the Government to establishing a refuge in Cavan or Monaghan, this must be done immediately.

I have heard it is looking for somewhere to progress this to and it still has not happened, so I ask the Minister to help with this. Is it his ambition to progress this and increase spaces? It would show real leadership. Will he pledge to provide adequate spaces in every county? We need a greater level of services across the board. We need legislative proposals to be progressed and enacted. The Minister will agree with this, but surely he will accept the bare minimum we owe women and children who have to flee their homes is a refuge, regardless of where they live. Is it the Minister's ambition? He will determine whether this will happen or not. Unfortunately the progress since the Government announced the target of doubling the number of spaces to 280 has been lacking. There were 12 new units in 2023 and fewer than 50 additional units are set to be delivered this year. This is all in the context of the target falling far off the number of spaces mandated by the convention on domestic violence. People in Cavan and Monaghan are entitled to a refuge, as is anyone else in this State, including those in the other seven counties that also continue to lack these services. I appeal to the Minister to recognise that. I urge him to give a commitment to our communities that he will right the wrongs of past governments and deliver adequate refuge for the women and children of counties Cavan and Monaghan.

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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It was very upsetting to read in the Women's Aid annual report that the organisation has received the highest number of domestic abuse reports in its 50-year history. While I acknowledge the work of the previous Minister, Deputy McEntee, we have a lot more to do. When it comes to domestic refuge spaces this Government is still failing in its legal obligation to provide them. This is incredibly important because at a time when we have a housing crisis we have a situation where victims are becoming trapped. Their options are either to stay in an abusive situation or become homeless. This is totally unacceptable. The report also found that 44% of those who reported a domestic violence incident to gardaí said they found them unhelpful. This must change. Gardaí must be trained in how to deal with a report of domestic abuse. We need to see an urgency in perpetrators being charged and brought before the courts because it can often take many years for these matters to even reach the courts. The argument for a domestic violence register is an extremely important one when it comes to protecting women from repeat offenders and ensuring gardaí are aware of where known abusers live or if they have moved into our communities. It is welcome everyone here is on the same page but we need to see more action. We need a society where every public space, community centre, sports club, pub, shop and home is a zero tolerance space when it comes to domestic and gender-based violence.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I am going to read out some statistics from last year. There were over 45,000 reports of domestic abuse to Women's Aid, over 22,000 contacts to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, over 49,000 domestic abuse incidents recorded by gardaí and over 65,000 domestic abuse calls recorded by gardaí. Behind every single one of these statistics is a person and they are mainly women, like the women who are here in the Gallery and the women who are watching at home. Women who have hopes, dreams and aspiration and have a right to feel safe. There are also women who are subjected to horrific abuse from another person, mainly a man and mainly a man who is known to the woman. The Minister mentioned that it is really incumbent on men to call out other men when it comes to situations like this. The last time I spoke in the Dáil about calling out other men I received a tirade of abuse on social media from a certain cohort of men. I tell them to have a good look at themselves and cop themselves on about why they are calling out somebody for calling them out on their behaviour.

I will mention a situation in my area that is related to refuges. We do not have enough of them and the Minister has acknowledged that. A woman I assisted in my constituency office last year had to flee her home with her children for her safety. She found the refuge and got all the support a refuge offers, but after a period she needed to leave the refuge. However, the perpetrator was still in the family home refusing to leave and exercising coercive control over his family. The council will not get involved because it just looks at statistics. It just looks at the forms that are sent in and does not see the person behind that. It sees the person is adequately housed on paper, but we know that is not the truth. Women are trapped in these situations. It was between staying in a refuge or returning to the family home, which is the home she had to flee for her own safety in the first place. As Deputy Carthy said already, the housing situation is trapping people in violent and dangerous situations. Surely a victim-centred approach can be taken when it comes to domestic violence so victims' and survivors' needs can be placed ahead of the abuser's.

Robert O'Donoghue (Dublin Fingal West, Labour)
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The need to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence has never been more urgent. It is not merely a matter of rising numbers; it is an epidemic. Women and children across the country are facing violence in their homes, which should be their safest space. Recent research shows us one in four women in Ireland, as well as one in seven men, will experience violence over the course of their lives. Every ten minutes there is a call to the Garda relating to domestic abuse. These are not isolated incidents but deep symptoms of a problematic system that demands immediate and sustained action. We are witnessing the devastating consequences of stigma, inaction and reactive policy. We know from the most recent reports released by Women’s Aid and Safe Ireland that 275 women have been violently killed in Ireland since 1996 and 20 children have died in incidents where women were violently killed. Some 63% of these women died in their homes, a place they should have felt most secure. In 87% of solved cases the victim knew her killer. Shockingly, one of the biggest risks to pregnant women in the first 12 months post-partum is violence from their partner. Most alarming of all, rates of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence have risen significantly since 2020.

We cannot allow more lives to be lost to such silent stigma or slow systems. Each woman killed violently is an outrage but behind every statistic there is a name, a woman, a mother, a daughter or a friend. Most of all, they were someone. We need an urgent, co-ordinated and well-funded intervention at every level from housing and justice to education and social protection. This violence does not respect borders. Increased numbers of women and girls are being killed in the North, which has become one of the most dangerous places for women in the EU. It is time for an all-island approach to this emergency.

Domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness for women in Ireland yet nine counties still have no refuge. Local authorities like mine in Dublin Fingal West are in desperate need of their own refuge within the area. The rise in cases coming to me as a TD compared with when I was a councillor has been exponential. It is one of the most shocking issues I have dealt with since coming here. It is the biggest change I have seen in my caseload. Most women who stay in refuges exit them into homeless hubs. The stark reality is women are often trapped in violent homes because they simply have nowhere else to go. We must recognise victims of domestic violence as a priority housing category. We must support victims’ choice of location, especially to avoid uprooting children from their schools and support systems. We must make the housing assistance payment easier to access and more reflective of market rates. We must support faster name removals from joint tenancies. We must recognise and count the scale of the problem.

Local authorities should be reporting on housing needs due to domestic violence. In Dublin Fingal West, we have a new priority welfare category for housing whereby victims of domestic violence are being prioritised, but we need a faster response on this. We must recognise domestic violence refuge accommodation in national homelessness statistics. These women are homeless and should be counted as such.

We must take financial abuse into account in assessing means-tested supports. Too often, women have no access to money because they remain classed as a dependant of their partner. We need separation of social welfare payments. Leaving abuse should not mean having to choose between safety and poverty. We must look to introduce a safety fund that would offer a cash grant, similar to the UK model, to help cover the high costs of escaping abuse and setting up a new home. The Department of Social Protection could deliver such a grant, much like it delivered the temporary rent supplement for victims of domestic violence during the pandemic.

Laws need to be strengthened and modernised, particularly in the online space where misogyny is thriving and algorithms promote toxic and harmful content that distorts reality. This is fuelling violence and abuse. It could be effectively tackled by ensuring recommender systems are turned off by the various social media websites to combat the spread of hateful material. These systems fuel and push violent and reactionary content to users. It is concerning that this proposal was notably absent from the online safety code brought forward by Coimisiún na Meán last May. I urge that there be a reconsideration in this regard.

We must be brave and introduce the necessary measures. We must enact a Jennie's law to ensure perpetrators are named and held accountable and that breaches of protection orders carry real consequences. We need to educate young men and boys about consent, respect and gender equality. We must focus on the responsibility of the perpetrator rather than the victim. Media coverage is often deeply uncomfortable and we must not become desensitised. The media have a responsibility to centre victims' voices and avoid sensationalised commentary on perpetrators. There must be a conscious effort to stop unconscious silencing of women who suffer abuse.

Domestic violence services should be funded sustainably by the State. Services having to rely on donations and the kindness of people doing fundraisers is an absolute farce. Services must be integrated into the housing and health systems. We need to strengthen links between local authorities and communities that are able to advocate for victims effectively.

We must expand and upgrade refuge spaces, not just for crisis response but to provide real long-term stability. While refuges are essential, they are not a permanent solution. Our aim should be to allow survivors to remain safely at home wherever possible and to hold perpetrators accountable, including through emergency removal powers such as those in operation in New Zealand and the UK.

We must move beyond zero tolerance. It is about not only calling out violence or misogyny when we see it but actively working to prevent it in every community.

Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I am conscious we are discussing domestic, sexual and gender-based violence on the day we learned George Gibney will be extradited from Florida to Ireland to face 79 charges of sexual offences against children. Gibney was a high-profile Irish Olympic swimming team coach in the eighties and nineties who abused his position of power and trust. He was previously charged with, but not tried for, numerous sexual offences. Fortunately, our legal norms and laws have changed since the nineties and it is now possible to prosecute historical sexual offences.

I acknowledge the work of Mark Horgan of Second Captains in bringing this case back into the public consciousness through his investigative podcast series "Where is George Gibney?". This is an example of the importance of well-resourced investigative journalism. The podcast prompted survivors of Gibney to come forward for the first time. It is those survivors I am thinking of in particular today. I pay tribute to them and commend them on their bravery and courage. It cannot have been easy to relive what must be such an agonising trauma by telling their story all these years later. I sincerely hope they get the justice they deserve.

We have a domestic and gender-based violence problem in this country. It is increasingly being recognised and I acknowledge the positive steps that have been taken, such as the establishment last year of Cuan. Nevertheless, the problem persists and the trends are still concerning. As has been noted, Women's Aid services responded to a record number of contacts last year. The Garda responded to an average of 1,144 incidents of domestic abuse per week between 2022 and 2024. That amounts to more than 178,000 times a person was attacked at home, which is a place that should be one of sanctuary and safety. More often than not, the attack was carried out by the person's partner.

We cannot separate the scourge of domestic and gender-based violence from the housing crisis. The most recent homelessness figures show that almost 4,300 women are living in emergency accommodation. How many of them are there because of an abusive partner? We know domestic violence is one of the leading causes, if not the leading one, of homelessness for women. All too often, the system is set up against those seeking safety from domestic and gender-based violence. On several occasions, I have been contacted by people in my constituency trying to escape domestic violence only to face an overly rigid, cold and bureaucratic system of housing supports that shows little sympathy or flexibility towards people in really horrendous and traumatising circumstances.

We see the same in our legal system. Sarah Grace, a solicitor and former colleague of mine, has written and spoken forcefully and courageously about her interaction with the justice system following sexual assault. She exposed the flaws in that system and how it can retraumatise victims and, indeed, be traumatic in its own right. It is a system desperately in need of reform in how it deals with cases of sexual and gender-based violence. The Minister recognises that and I hope he will treat the need for reform with the urgency it deserves.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is a major problem in society that affects many women and children. The Government and the Minister are committed to tackling it. The Government is delivering on the commitments in the zero-tolerance strategy to achieve a society in which sexual violence and the toxic attitudes that fuel it are not accepted. Since taking office, the Minister has prioritised legislation in this area, which is really important.

The recently published Women's Aid annual impact report for 2024 made for distressing reading. The data is stark. Last year, Women's Aid saw a 12% increase in contacts to its services and the highest number of contacts in its history. Behind these figures are women and children seeking help. I acknowledge the work being done by Women's Aid and by gardaí around the country. While the figures demonstrate the scale of the crisis of domestic and gender-based violence, they also show a growing willingness to recognise and call out abuse.

Domestic abuse is a devastating crime that requires a strong and co-ordinated response, as reflected in the third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. One of the key objectives of the zero-tolerance strategy is to encourage victims of domestic violence to come forward to report crimes committed against them. A significant amount of work has already been undertaken in this area, including the nationwide roll-out of the divisional protective service units, DPSUs, which ensure vulnerable victims are dealt with by gardaí with specialist expertise. Officers are assigned to the DPSUs to receive bespoke training on engaging with vulnerable victims.

We need more safe spaces for those who come forward to seek help. In my area, we are working hard to open a new ten-unit domestic violence refuge at the Monastery Hostel site on the Old Dublin Road in Carlow town. Amber Women's Refuge is working with Carlow County Council, the Housing Agency and Cuan to make this happen, with the tender for construction currently at the evaluation stage. I will work with all the agencies involved to ensure the refuge opens as quickly as possible.

Like all TDs, I have spoken over the years with women who were in a situation where they needed help and support. It is so important for them to know there is a place for them in a women's refuge, as well as wraparound services and supports. I acknowledge that this is a priority for the Minister. My understanding is the women's refuge in Carlow will be up and running next year. It is a priority for all of us. There were nine counties around the country that needed a refuge. I ask the Minister to make the provision of all of those refuges a priority.

It is important the services are in place and that we are there to help any woman or child who needs those supports or help.

Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for facilitating this debate. As many speakers have said, domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is a significant issue throughout our country. At the extreme end of it, 275 females have died violently in this country since 1996. That is a huge number. An Garda Síochána has said that in 2024, it dealt with 65,000 domestic abuse calls alone. The statistics are clear and while we could spend all day rattling them off, it is obvious there is a significant issue in this regard. These are only the reported and recorded cases, however. We all know there is a significant amount of abuse and violence taking place that is not recorded or reported. That is the difficulty. For example, there are females living in domestic situations that are extremely coercive and difficult. This is a huge issue throughout the country.

To be fair to the Government, it has stepped up in many respects. It published its zero-tolerance strategy in 2022. I commend the Minister on his action plan that was published last month, which sets out additional funding and resources to critical areas that badly need it, such as organisations like Cuan. Obviously, that funding is vital.

There has to be a cultural shift in this country and that is no easy task. It has become more difficult. It was easier 20 or 30 years ago. Now, with the online world and social media, the task of creating that cultural change and that necessary respect is difficult. The biggest challenge the Government faces is in trying to deal with the online world. We have all heard stories and witnessed examples of the online world and the influence it has in leading people to perpetuate violence, abuse and so forth.

Much of the domestic abuse and violence against women happens within the home, within the individual household. It is fair to say there are not sufficient supports and refuge options for women in that situation. As public representatives, we have all met women who said they did not feel they had anywhere to go. That is a significant issue. I know the Minister and the Government are trying to improve that situation and that it is being dealt with as an urgency. Unfortunately, however, when it comes to family-friendly places where women can go to when they leave a home, particularly when children are involved, we are not where we need to be at present. We urgently need to address that.

In the housing area, as someone who came from a local authority, I know that the one thing often asked of women who left the family home and sought housing support was why they left the family home. It is not acceptable that women are asked that question. We need to change that culture dramatically. I ask the Minister to take that up with the Department of housing and the local authorities because that type of questioning of women when they leave the family home as a result of abuse, violence or coercive behaviour should not be happening. While I commend the actions taking place, we have a lot to do in this area. Critically, for females who find themselves in a situation they need to get out of, we must have options and supports available for them, and we need to dramatically improve them.

Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister today. It is great to have an opportunity to speak on this matter. I stand in full solidarity with every single woman, survivor and child who has been torn apart and asunder, often physically and emotionally, by domestic, sexual or gender-based violence. Every single day of the week, we are confronted by harrowing stories, brutal killings, names of women we read in the newspaper, faces we see in memorials and families who carry that burden of grief and pain that will never leave them. Their deaths shock our nation. I think of the many stories of death, killing and murder that have changed a nation and forced the system to listen to women who have been forced to normalise abuse. I am talking about those women who fear making it home safely or fear the sound of the door slamming shut behind them and that angry hand or controlling voice they have in their lives.

We all know in this House that the problem does not begin or end with the devastating murders, stories or statistics we read about. Violence against women is not rare. It is widespread and systemic and is tolerated in so many ways. It is tolerated big and small every single day in this country. To use public transport as an example, every time a woman is groped on public transport, they stay silent because they feel no one will believe them or take them seriously or they fear they will be targeted as the one who has no craic in her or has something wrong with her. Women need to be believed and have confidence in themselves to say this is wrong. We need society to say this is wrong. Every time a partner raises their fist or voice, it convinces them they have a right to dominate. Every time a child grows up and learns that abuse is just part of life, we fail as a society.

I know this is important to the Minister and to every single Member of this House. We seek not merely to condemn the acts but to absolutely uproot them from every level of society and to confront them in our culture, courts, communities and homes. Last year, An Garda Síochána received 65,000 domestic abuse calls, that is, 65,000 cries for help. Women's Aid was contacted more than 32,000 times, a record high in 52 years of service. A total of 275 women have died violently since 1996 and nearly half of Irish women have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.

As the Minister knows, I work closely with Women's Aid Dundalk. We are in the process of going to tender and building an incredible refuge service in Dundalk. It has done fantastic work over recent years and we are coming to a point where we will have a top-class refuge, a safe place for women. That needs to be replicated, and Women’s Aid is trying to do that throughout the country. We are doubling those refuges spaces. No child or woman fleeing violence should be told there is nowhere safe for them to stay. As the Minister pointed out, we are updating a school curriculum and funding campaigns around consent because culture change has to start at home.

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important debate. Cases of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence are at a crisis point. Women's Aid was founded in 1974 and it has been instrumental in responding to the needs of women over the past 50 years. Having begun as a small service, it has grown into a national organisation that directly supports thousands of women throughout the country. I have directed women to it and it gives great advice around planning how to leave an abusive relationship because that is often the most dangerous time for women. Shamefully, however, its 50th anniversary was marked by the highest recorded level of disclosures of domestic abuse in its history, with nearly 46,000 cases. These are only the cases that are officially disclosed. In 2022, 10,000 protection orders were issued against the perpetrators of domestic violence, of which 5,000 were breached, yet only 500 abusers were convicted. This is a system that does not protect women. It is not working and it degrades us all. When a woman takes the brave step to escape, she faces a new injustice, the lack of emergency accommodation and support services. Women and children in crisis are being turned away and forced to stay in dangerous situations or travel long distances to access refuges. We need more refuge places. I know the Minister has acknowledged that, and I also acknowledge the work of his predecessor, the Minister, Deputy McEntee.

We need funding for front-line services. We need a justice system that protects survivors, not one that re-traumatises them. I am glad the Minister visited Teach Tearmainn in Kildare town. Although it is a fantastic refuge, it is overstretched. While I know nine counties do not have any refuge, Kildare is a two-constituency county with nine TDs. It has a big population. We need more than one refuge. The women of Kildare deserve better. They do not want our sympathy. Rather, they want services to be resourced, a commitment and a sense of urgency.

Last week, like many others, I listened to the harrowing experience my party comrade Seanadóir Nicole Ryan suffered when she was a child. She recalled in the Seanad and again on the RTÉ “Behind the Story” podcast how her stepfather had tried to kill her mother, how her mother had bravely risked her life to protect her children from him and how Nicole did all she could to shield her brother from the wrath of domestic abuse and violence. Nicole has come out the other end and is now shaping the future of our country on domestic abuse legislation in the Seanad. Her case is an example of how this can impact on our children and why it is important that the representation we have in these two Houses is representative of our population. As Nicole said, there are no child witnesses to domestic abuse, only sufferers. While I have spoken only about women, and men suffer from domestic violence as well, I always say that if we sort it out for the women, they will make sure it is sorted out for everyone. Ní saoirse go saoirse na mban.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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It appears that every single day we wake up to another horrifying headline. Every single week, women in this country read the worst imaginable stories, imagining that it could happen to them. This week, we have once again heard the name Jennifer Poole. Jennifer was 24 when she was brutally stabbed to death in her home in Finglas. She was killed by a man with a long history of violence against women, who had already been jailed for assaulting a previous partner. Jennifer was of course neither a rare nor isolated case. Her story is part of a constant, sickening drumbeat of violence happening in homes, communities and families every single week. The perpetrators are often not strangers. They are not monsters hiding in the shadows, as we allow ourselves to believe. They are often our colleagues, neighbours and friends. We saw it again just last week. A former garda, who swore to protect, used his uniform, knowledge and power to impersonate a colleague online so that men could arrive at a woman's home to assault her. In the United States, former Irish Olympic swimming coach George Gibney now faces a staggering 79 charges of sexual abuse, decades after survivors first told their stories and were not believed.

The truth is that these men are not hiding. They are operating in plain sight because the systems around them allow it. When survivors speak up and flee violence, when they seek protection, they face a family law system that re-traumatises them. They face judges who are not equipped to spot vital signs of abuse. They face court orders that force them and their children back into contact with their abuser. They face a legal system that is not only indifferent to their safety but complicit in the continued harm.

The research published by Women's Aid this year is damning. Two thirds of women in guardianship and custody cases said the judges had failed to consider the history of domestic abuse. One described the family law system as being even worse than the abuse. A legacy of the system we have built is that it is one where women have to choose between safety and legality, where children are disbelieved, re-traumatised and forced into contact with violent parents. It is simply unacceptable. I said recently that violence against women is not new but social media is supercharging it. Big tech platforms indoctrinate boys with misogyny, funnelled through algorithmic hate. This is where violent men are now being made, in bedrooms, gaming chats and social media apps, and we are doing almost nothing to stop it.

The Government has to act. We must implement the recommendations of Women's Aid and the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women recommendations for Ireland. That means fully resourcing Cuan, not as a token gesture but with stable, long-term investment. It means expanding access to legal aid so women are not priced out of justice. It means passing the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill to tackle discrimination in all its forms, reforming the family courts from the ground up with compulsory domestic abuse training for every legal and child welfare professional, and following through in full as promised with the establishment of the domestic violence disclosure scheme, with a victim-centred approach so that women have the right to find out that they are risk.

We must go further, because the State cannot preach zero tolerance for domestic abuse while gardaí on the front line are undertrained and undersupported. It is no longer acceptable for domestic abuse training to be confined to specialist units. Every single member of An Garda Síochána, regardless of their rank and role, must receive ongoing compulsory continuing professional development in recognising and responding to domestic and gender-based violence. Survivors deserve to be believed and gardaí deserve the tools to understand what that actually means. It means that we have heard the phrase "never again" too many times in this Chamber. It has to mean something and it has to start now, because for every week that passes without action, more women are put in danger, more children are traumatised and more families are left asking why they were not protected.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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In the 1990s, I worked in London at a domestic violence project to support Irish women in my job in a school completion programme. Every single year, we supported children who were growing up in families where domestic violence was an everyday occurrence. My doctoral research found that the number of young people who left school before the leaving certificate was due to violence in the home. I interviewed a number of students at a time. Now, in my constituency, people come in every single week, telling me the dire straits that they are in. For all of my working life, this issue has come up. It is not going away. In fact, it is getting worse. We need to make sure that we are doing everything that we can. It is about providing refuge spaces, but it is also about preventing refuge spaces from ever needing to be used.

Men need to be educated that it is out of order to lift their hands and treat women the way that they are doing it. That needs to be called out. Every person working with children needs to have that trauma-informed way of ensuring that they are able to explain to children of both genders why this is out of line. Every agency needs to be able to deal with it, to ask people if they are okay and how they can help. We need men to call it out for other men. This mentality that it is behind doors and all that stuff that I would love to say is old-fashioned is not, because it is still happening. It needs to be called out.

In my constituency, 70% of public order and criminal damage incidents in Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard are linked to domestic violence. We have 1,100 child welfare cases remaining unallocated, leaving vulnerable children without help and in silence. I ask the Minister to do everything he can. We will keep talking about this until we never have to talk about it again, not because we are being silent but because it is finished.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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The connections between the housing crisis, homelessness and domestic violence have been shown over and over again. The state of the housing emergency is having direct impacts on women and their children being unable to flee situations of violence. Indeed, front-line domestic violence services repeatedly raise concerns that the housing crisis is forcing victims to either stay with the perpetrator or enter homelessness services because of the lack of appropriate supports. Then, these mothers decide that bringing their children into homelessness or inappropriate emergency accommodation would further traumatise the children, so they go into hidden homelessness. They become couch surfers and try to stay with families and friends, where they can, and they are not counted. Those in domestic violence refuges are not counted in our official homelessness figures. They are hidden. They are not being considered sufficiently. When they are in hidden homelessness, they are absolutely not prioritised.

We have a housing crisis that is worsening this crisis and epidemic of domestic violence. We need to see local authorities that are trauma-informed and that understand that this needs to be a priority. When families present to them as being homeless and coming from domestic violence, they need to be believed, rather than, as I have heard, instances where they are turned away and asked if they have somewhere to stay because the local authorities have no emergency accommodation available. It is absolutely unacceptable that those who are fleeing violence are not being supported by the State to be able to leave situations of violence. The housing disaster is making Ireland less safe for those who are suffering domestic violence.

Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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Domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is a scourge on our society that continues to grow. I commend the focus the Minister's predecessor brought to this issue in her term of office as Minister for Justice and the establishment of Cuan as an agency, but we have so much work to do in the Minister's portfolio in the justice sector to continue to equip the courts and front-line services to recognise and support women who want and need to exit the incredibly difficult circumstances they are in.

It goes beyond the justice sector, however. We have to meet women where they are. It is such a delicate thread that brings people from situations of violence into safety and we have to protect it. People in hairdressers', doctors' offices and so many different situations need to be trained and equipped to meet women where they are and help to bring them to safety. We have to provide the accommodation. Until we do that, we are forcing women to stay in these situations.

Beyond that, I also want to speak to the societal issues at play here. The reality is that we live in a patriarchal society. That should not be a controversial thing to say, yet many people jar and react to it when I say those words. Because we live in a patriarchal society, we essentially facilitate everyday sexism. We also facilitate what I would say is a smaller group of people who actually practise and have misogyny in their lives. A smaller group again translate that misogyny into actual violence against women. These things are all connected. Continuing to have that gendered order in our society and having a patriarchal system allows all of this to be facilitated and to continue to be hidden.

That is before we reach how this amplified in the online space. We have much to do as a State and the Minister has much to do as Minister for justice, but we also have to address the society culture that needs to change.

Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach as ucht an deis labhairt ar an ábhar fíorthábhachtach seo. I commend the Minister on the interest he has taken in the matter since taking office. I also commend the Minister, Deputy McEntee on the correct focus she placed on the importance of us as a society dealing with the legacy and trauma inflicted by domestic, gender-based and sexual violence.

This was brought into focus as an issue for me when I chaired a meeting of the south Dublin joint policing committee some years ago, when we saw the first set of statistics of crimes after COVID restrictions had started to lift. It became very apparent to us in the chamber, including the senior Garda officers with us, that there was a domestic violence pandemic that had been brought into very sharp focus by the fact that in many cases, women were locked in homes and other places with persons who would threaten their life and physical safety. In many cases it brought into focus the fact that the statistics on domestic, gender-based and sexual violence against women are often just the tip of the iceberg because too many of these incidents go unreported and undisclosed.

We have seen that incidence of disclosures of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is rising at the moment. We heard the references of 32,000 calls to Women’s Aid and 61,000 calls to An Garda Síochána. We also know that despite the zero-tolerance strategies being put in place, these numbers are rising. Part of that may be that women now feel they can come forward and disclose these incidents of abuse, but we also know of many instances from constituency clinics and from speaking to women who have been through the trauma of physical violence in the home, that in many cases they do not feel supported when coming forward and that needs to be the focus of how we address this in the future.

In 2024, the number of instances of physical abuse rose by 22%, sexual abuse by 30% and emotional abuse by 15%. One of the darkest statistics is that five women were killed in violent circumstances in 2024 and more than half of the women killed since 1996 were killed by a current or former intimate partner. This shows there is an epidemic we need to address. That is why laws such as Valerie’s law and Jennie’s law are vital in ensuring the protection of women, men and children throughout the country and need to continue to be enforced and immediately addressed. They are vital in ensuring that victims and their families are not retraumatised by a system that allows offenders to, for example, retain guardianship rights over children.

I welcome the Minister's commitment to ensuring that the compulsory disclosure of counselling notes in such cases that come before the courts is abolished to ensure we do not retraumatise survivors in the place they are supposed to seek justice, hope and support. I am encouraged by the commitment to deliver additional refuge spaces to bring us up to meet the standards that should be there under the Istanbul Convention on domestic violence. We have work to do in that space and I welcome the Minister's accelerated focus on this during his time in the role.

One of the things that brought this into focus is that it is not just a justice-led response but a whole-of-State response. One initiative I am very proud of in South Dublin County Council is that we provided domestic violence training for members of the council staff who deal with victims of domestic, gender-based and sexual violence. This training should be adopted by every public-facing State body, including judges and An Garda Síochána who have made strides in this area, but as recent surveys show, there is room to improve.

Many colleagues referred to the fact that we need a cultural check on this. Misogyny, as it permeates the online world and other spheres of life, cannot be left unchecked. We need to think about public transport, open spaces, walkways and workplaces to make sure they are safe spaces for all women. A number of years ago I was rightly called out when I said that as a dad of three boys, it was incumbent on me to raise my boys to have respect for women. Rights like this should not rely on the goodwill of men; they should be intrinsic to human beings and our laws should honour them as a matter of course. That is why this matter needs to be addressed and at the centre of the Government's focus.

Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Domestic violence continues to impact thousands of lives in our communities. The need for support services has never been greater. The Minister recently said that Ireland has a very big problem when it comes to domestic violence. Cases have risen dramatically. In my constituency of Louth, we have seen a 52% increase over five years and nearly 27% of an increase between 2023 and 2024. I welcome the Minister’s announcement of the €3.2 million funding call to expand domestic, gender-based and sexual violence supports and indeed his firm and genuine commitment to continue with the work initiated by his predecessor, Deputy McEntee. This funding will form part of a record €67 million provided for Cuan in budget 2025. It will allow us to target access to trauma-informed care and build long-term safety and resilience for survivors. However, we also need to strengthen trust in the system. It is still shocking when I hear on the radio or read in the press about a victim who has come forward and said they feel let down or not heard by the system. It has brought some comfort to me to listen to the unity in the Chamber today as we call for improved services across the board for these offences.

Women very often feel left alone and isolated. My constituency office is no different from any other in the country and is inundated with calls about how we can help as politicians. A young woman recently came to us who has two young children and at the moment has accommodation in one of the refuges in County Louth. That is the only place she can call home with her two children, both of whom are under two years of age. This is absolutely shocking because while she is there and from the time she can no longer stay there, the man who perpetrated violence against her is sleeping in a comfortable bed in his own home. She is potentially homeless.

As Deputy Ahern said, there is a silent homeless and the silent homeless are these women and children. I urge that we continue to invest in Cuan. I have no doubt in the coming months and maybe years, budget restraints will mean the Minister has to consider very strongly where he puts money and into which services. There cannot be budget restraints or cuts when it comes to tackling the issue of domestic violence. We need to protect our children and we need our children to be educated in order that they can speak out and we can end this brutal cycle.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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I pay tribute to Women's Aid on its 50th anniversary. I wish to read out the number for anyone that needs it: 1800 341900. We obviously wish there was no need for Women's Aid but there is, and its work is getting harder and more complex.

Some of the earlier speakers mentioned the normalising of domestic abuse, and we cannot allow that to happen. We have to speak clearly and with one voice and be unequivocal in saying domestic abuse and sexual and gender-based violence is not normal and should not be treated as such. I raise a case I have raised many times and for the avoidance of any doubt, I will continue to raise until there is a resolution. I wish to speak to the Minister about a woman I will call Janet. That is not her name but he will understand why I use it when I tell her story. In 2010, she joined the Dublin City Council housing list. She was eligible then, as she is today, for social housing. In 2015, she was viciously assaulted by her partner. He was sent to prison for a very long time but is now out. She went to live in north County Dublin where she felt safe and could raise her children in peace, and she remained on the Dublin City Council housing list. She is now in the range of being offered a house she has waited 15 years. She will get an offer but she cannot move back. She has a letter from An Garda Síochána stating for her own safety she should not move back to Dublin city. She is living in precarious private rented accommodation in north County Dublin. She is being treated as if this is a normal, average, run of the mill housing case, which it is not. When I say we should not normalise domestic abuse, I mean we have to go above and beyond and recognise that individual circumstances must be taken into consideration.

For that reason, I urge the Minister to consider the case and to do what he can in his office as Minister for justice to put some substance to the words we all say here, and his Government colleagues say them as well, about not normalising domestic abuse. For that reason, victims and survivors, and victims of the housing crisis as well of course, cannot be treated in isolation from their circumstances. I agree with the previous speaker about the role of men. Men must call out violence against women. Men are key players in ensuring women are safe - safe in their houses, on the streets, on public transport and in their workplaces, whether they work in a factory, an office, a hairdressers or indeed here in the Dáil or the Seanad. Men need to step up for the women they work with and alongside.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I begin by recognising the survivors of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence present in the House today and the many who will watch this debate over the course of the afternoon. I know many TDs have spoken eloquently on this issue today but we know that words must be followed by action.

I draw the attention of the House and the Minister to one particular action, the Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 2024. My colleague, Senator Malcolm Noonan, along with the Social Democrats and the Labour Party, has reintroduced this Bill into Seanad Éireann. It was introduced during the previous Seanad by the former Green Party Senator, Vincent P. Martin, and it has now been reintroduced, and completed Committee Stage in the Seanad last week. We in the Green Party, the Labour Party and the Social Democrats intend to advance the Bill through that House and hopefully through this House as well. The Bill proposes simple but necessary changes to provide that breaches of court-ordered safety, protection or barring orders should no longer be treated solely as summary offences. As it stands, someone who violates one of these orders often faces a maximum of 12 months in prison. The Bill would introduce an indictable offence for serious breaches, enabling such cases to be tried on indictment and punished by up to five years' imprisonment. It is not about criminalising people unnecessarily but it is about ensuring those who deliberately and repeatedly violate court orders, who often show patterns of coercive control, face meaningful consequences. Importantly, this change will allow courts to refuse bail in serious cases, strengthening protections for survivors who are at immediate risk. We also have to recognise that children present during these types of breaches of protection and barring orders suffer deep trauma and this Bill could give them a greater degree of protection.

This is not symbolic legislation. It is survivor-informed, evidence-based and based on years of calls from NGOs working in the domestic, sexual and gender-based violence sector. I believe, as I know the two other parties involved believe, this is important legislation. It has passed Second and Committee Stages in Seanad Éireann and we hope to see it progress through Seanad Éireann and introduced in this House. I understand the Minister of State speaking to the Bill in the Seanad was broadly supportive of it. I hope, if we are able to introduce the Bill to this House, the Minister will likewise be supportive of what I think could be an important and meaningful step in offering protection to victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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I welcome those present in the Public Gallery for this debate. The Minister mentioned at the beginning of his remarks that he would speak to representatives of the GAA about the game changer campaign. Obviously, I welcome any move by sporting organisations because they have such access to children, to girls and boys. Nobody against whom credible accusations of domestic violence have been made should be managing any sports team. This applies to soccer as well; I am not targeting the GAA. When the Minister speaks to representatives of the GAA he needs to check the GAA's safeguarding policies, that they are robust and based on best up-to-date practice because that does not seem to be the case.

I will also mention the phrase "zero tolerance". It jars with me greatly because it is such an easy thing to declare and announce that a place has zero tolerance when we know that is not the case. There is huge tolerance of violence against women in our society, in this building and in so many workplaces, and so on. The culture of violence against women is rooted in inequality, patriarchy, and economic inequality, etc.

I have very little time so I will quickly mention two issues about our legal system. We put people through the most obscene legal misogyny. The first thing I will mention is the DPP because this is an issue that needs more attention. We all know of the case Nikita Hand bravely took against Conor McGregor and won in the civil courts. Nikita should not have had to take that case. The DPP should not have a veto over cases in this way. It is not the first time. I have been approached by loads of people who have been victims of rape and whose cases were not taken. It is extremely upsetting that, having gone to the trouble of reporting and getting a medical, the DPP then says "No". In the case of Nikita, it is just incredible that the case of somebody with that level of injuries was not taken. I salute her and so many others for standing up to very wealthy people and now facing deny, attack and reverse victim and offender, DARVO, tactics in the courts.

The Psychological Society of Ireland has come out in absolute opposition to the idea of counselling notes being used in any way. This has not received the publicity it deserves, but it has come out and said that as a society, as a professional organisation, it calls for "an immediate end to the practice of accessing therapy notes in legal cases involving rape and sexual assault..." and essentially backs my Bill. This has to be ruled out. It is something the Minister can do. We do not have juries for the Special Criminal Court because there was an emergency. There is an emergency of gender-based violence.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank the Minister for his detailed speech. Let me recognise the progress made in terms of legislation. We are on our third national strategy. We have an action plan. The Minister is promising three pieces of very important legislation in regard to the removal of guardianship rights for a person who has been convicted of killing, the issue of counselling records which has already been referred to and needs more detail and teasing out, and Jennie's Law. I welcome all of that. I welcome the extra money for Cuan and for refuges. Once again, I will put it in perspective because we have so much legislation - I thank the Library and Research Service for its digest which outlines seven pieces of legislation from 2017 up to 2024 - one would think we should not be here talking about domestic and gender-based violence.

Let me first take away the word "domestic" because it minimises crime. Crime is crime. Let me deal with the word "epidemic". It is not an epidemic. An epidemic refers to disease that spreads among the community. This is criminality on every level. Despite all of this legislation I have carefully watched, the numbers are depressingly, shockingly and unacceptably high. In 2024 the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre reported the highest number of disclosures in its 46-year history. Women’s Aid, which is now into its 51st year, disclosed it was contacted 32,144 times, and so on.

I will not use up the short time I have with the figures because they are truly shocking, but let me zone in on something. In 1997, the year my second child was born, we had a task force. Eithne FitzGerald was the Minister at the time. The task force set out in a very detailed way what should happen, particularly in relation to perpetrators. Fast forward 28 years from then and 51 years from when Women's Aid was set up in 1974 and Erin Pizzey's book Scream Quietly or the Neighbours Will Hear was published, which is a seminal work. Here we are 51 years later and the figures have gotten worse. The figure has already been given of 275 women murdered since 1996, the vast majority in their own homes or by somebody who knows them. We stand here again, and I do it in shame, actually. I again mention the cost of domestic violence to the economy. The Library and Research Service has zoned in on this.

I will get the exact figure. It is approximately €2 billion per year to the economy alone. If I appeal to the male mind and the male model of economy, on that level alone we are losing a fortune as it costs a fortune. While I welcome the Minister's bone fides, to think that 50-something years after Women's Aid was established we are still clapping ourselves on the back that we are now going to build more refuges to take out the innocent people and allow the perpetrator stay, there is something seriously wrong. Part of the problem is we are describing it as domestic and as an epidemic rather than criminality.

Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy. Back over to the Government side, Deputy Daly has four minutes.

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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Today, I speak not only as a TD for Roscommon-Galway but as a GP with over three decades of experience. In that time, I have witnessed the hidden trauma of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. I recognise what Deputy Connolly has said that in some way, the term domestic has minimised what in fact is assault within the home. "Domestics" were sometimes minimised because it was simply "a domestic" and it was treated in a different way than if it was a common assault out on the street. I recognise what the Deputy said in this regard.

I have seen the fear in people's eyes, the silent suffering, the intimidated, the coerced and the emotional and psychological scars that last long after physical injuries have healed. I have done that house call on Christmas Day with alcohol-fuelled violence, an injured wife and terrified children. These figures are deeply troubling. In Ireland, one in three women - 35% - have experienced abuse by an intimate partner. Since 1996, 275 women have lost their lives to violence, mostly in their own homes. These are not just statistics; they represent lives stolen, families devastated and communities left heartbroken. The violence is not confined to others in the headlines. It is happening in our communities. I received figures from Roscommon Safe Link, our local support service, showing a 13% rise in new clients and a 5% rise in existing clients over the last year. This increase reflects both the scale of the problem but also a growing trust in these services. People have reached out because they believe they will be met with compassion and support and I suppose that is the culture we are trying to foster here. In 2024, Roscommon Safe Link delivered 146 outreach clinics across Boyle, Castlerea and Ballaghaderreen. In rural counties, these clinics can mean the difference between someone seeking help or remaining trapped in silent terror. The service also supported 37 new children and responded to over 9,300 contacts, including more than 800 crisis calls. Behind every one of those numbers is a person in need.

Abuse affects people of all genders. There has been a rise in male clients attending as well. While these are a minority, our response must reflect that reality also. Yet, despite this vital work, County Roscommon still has no dedicated refuge. Survivors fleeing abuse are forced to leave their home county to find safety. This is unacceptable. The groundwork for a safe house and refuge has been laid with Cuan and it is essential this project moves forward without delay. I will advocate for its delivery.

However, beyond the statistics and services, we must ask the deeper question. Why does this violence persist? It continues because of the attitudes we tolerate, the behaviours we excuse and the silence we allow. If we are serious about ending domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, we must start earlier, by educating young people about respect, consent and healthy relationships. Culture must change and men must be at the heart of it. We must also recognise that abuse is changing. Digital abuse, coercive control and online harassment are growing threats. Our laws, our support services and our education system must keep pace. As a GP, I have seen how abuse often escalates during pregnancy. The Women's Aid maternity project in Dublin shows the difference early intervention can make. These supports must be made available not just in urban centres but also in rural communities like mine. That is why I welcome the Government's zero-tolerance strategy that calls for a whole-of-Government and whole-of-society approach to end domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. It is built on the four pillars of the Istanbul Convention, which are prevention, protection, prosecution and policy co-ordination. I welcome the Minister's commitment to expanding the funding for Cuan beyond the €67 million committed this year. The Government zero-tolerance strategy sets direction. We must now ensure it delivers meaningful change in every community, including my own in Roscommon-Galway.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I also join others in calling out the scourge of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in our society. It should be called out at all junctures - in WhatsApp groups, in sports clubs, in our local pubs and here in the Dáil. I acknowledge the work of the Minister's predecessor, Deputy McEntee, in terms of the legislation, which Deputy Connolly has previously referenced, and also the structural changes and the funding that has gone with it. As has also been referenced, this is an increasing phenomenon. Local gardaí raised it specifically with us in our local policing forum when they talked about areas of crime which were expanding. Women's Aid highlighted that in its annual report when it referred to getting over 40,000 disclosures during 28,000 contacts. That would amount to an 18% increase in disclosures of domestic abuse. It is very clear that we have taken measures but we have to do more and we need to continue to do more. I also particularly welcome the attempts to try to capture what is happening. I understand the CEO is now working on a domestic violence survey to provide more accurate prevalence data to follow on from previous sexual violence studies, which have dated over time. I believe Cuan is involved in that too.

I wish to focus on an area the Minister and I have worked on for some time and that is the issue of Jennie's law. Jennie's brother Jason has been a tireless advocate for his sister and for their family who had direct impact with a most extreme outcome, the death of their sister. I thank the Minister for the work he has done along with Senator O'Loughlin and Jason to try to progress a Bill which would provide a register to put in place information that future victims may be able to avail of. In a modern world with lots of rights and balancing of those rights, it can be difficult to put in place such a register but I know the Minister is determined to do that along with his other Government colleagues.

Jennie was a wonderful young woman. She was from Finglas, beloved by her local GAA club Erin's Isle. She was a home care worker. She had two children who are now looked after by the Poole family. Sometimes, in all of the discussion around Jennie's law, Jennie's own memory is forgotten but the Poole family are determined not to allow that happen. Even the very description of the new legislation coming through and that it would be known as Jennie's law is very important to the family. What is more important to them is that the law will have a direct impact on those people who may be impacted in the future. When Jason first came to meet myself and some of my colleagues, the Minister will remember Jason also spoke about other areas where we could improve the response to domestic violence and the outcomes of families who are impacted by it.

Some of those measures have been taken, for example around the custody of children where a partner may be indicted in the crime of murder against their parent. However, there remains others, perhaps more societal steps, which we have to take too. I refer to the calling out of what might be called micro-aggressions. If you are old-fashioned you would just call it unacceptable behaviour. Often among young men, those types of unacceptable comments can develop but young men want to be empowered to call that stuff out too. I call out organisations like the GAA in particular, which is doing a huge among of work to empower young men. This is not about targeting or stigmatising young men. It is about empowering them to call out what they know to be behaviour that is unacceptable. It is a spectrum of offences we are talking about here and I am not conflating them in any way.

It is about calling out unacceptable behaviour against women at a young age with trusted organisations on the ground and funding those organisations to support them to do it. We need to work with youth centres, which are right across our communities doing that work. This is a much bigger societal issue. Those conversations need to happen alongside the very necessary legislative and structural changes the Department is making. I thank the Minister for his support.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is an epidemic but there is a point in saying, as Deputy Catherine Connolly did, it is unacceptable criminality that has to be called out in every way it can. There is a requirement on all of us to do it. The nicest way I can put it is unfortunate pieces online - we know the characters I am talking about - cannot be given the sort of space they have at the moment to poison young men's minds in particular. None of this is acceptable, particularly in this State, when there were 45,765 disclosures of domestic abuse to Women's Aid helplines in 2024. The Dublin Rape Crisis helpline had 22,700 contacts in 2024. The Garda recorded 49,230 domestic abuse incidents in 2024. That is up from 35,668 in 2020. The Garda recorded 65,225 domestic abuse calls in 2024, up from 44,782 in 2020. It is utterly unacceptable. We hope some of those figures are because people feel freer to come forward but there are still issues. We know the logjams for those seeking protection orders of all kinds, even down to the set-up in Garda stations, which are not necessarily suitable for somebody making a disclosure. I welcome the specialist teams like that in Castlebellingham and others throughout the State. They are absolutely necessary. Wraparounds supports need to put in place around people, women in particular, who find themselves in really desperate circumstances. We all know the horror stories of the violence and we have also seen the absolute tragedies where women have lost their lives. We need to ensure we give the protections and mitigate as much as possible to ensure we do not allow this to happen.

There is a huge issue regarding data. It is critical we have all the data possible so we know where we are at and can be provided. In my constituency, like many others, I welcome the huge work done by Women's Aid in Dundalk, the Rape Crisis Centre North East, Dundalk counselling service, the Garda and local authorities but the tools needed are not necessarily available. Tusla officials were before the children's committee. It will not be a major shock that they said, "Wider societal issues such as global movement, poverty, homelessness, domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, drugs, criminality and exploitation, and social media continue to significantly impact the demand for our services." It is impacting families across the board. The tools and services must be provided but they are not available. That is before talking about homelessness and how it has a huge impact.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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Ireland is becoming a more violent place. The rates of domestic violence, sexual violence and rape are all increasing. The society we have created over the past number of decades has led to Ireland becoming more violent for women. Day in, day out, lives are being destroyed. In 2011,1,958 sexual offences were recorded. In 2021, this figure had increased by 75%, to 3,433. In 2011, 447 rapes were recorded. In 2021, that figure doubled to 983. I submitted a parliamentary question to the former Minister for Justice in relation to domestic violence. The Garda Síochána provided results from the PULSE database on reports of domestic abuse in this State. In 2014, there were 14,264 cases where domestic abuse was considered a motive. In 2023, it was 46,439. The figure for domestic abuse in just the first quarter of 2024 was nearly the same as that for the whole year of 2014. Domestic abuse call-outs to the Garda have quadrupled in the space of four years. The number of women who have been raped in Ireland is almost treble the rate in the EU. In 2022, the average number of women reporting rape in Ireland stood at 34 per 100,000 women. That is significantly higher than the 12 per 100,000 across six EU countries with comparable statistics. These are shocking figures. I do not believe the State even recognises what is happening at the moment regarding domestic violence and domestic assaults against women. The perpetrators of these crimes are getting younger and younger. Children at Risk in Ireland, CARI, a specialist and professional therapy service for children, found that child-on-child abuse has increased by 44% in the past two years. Marina Porter, the manager of the Donegal Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre, said, "What we have observed is that the level of physical violence accompanying sexual violence has seriously escalated over the last couple of months ... We have also seen that [there are] multiple perpetrators in one crime ... and this is highly concerning." The culture of this country is radically changing. That has to be recognised. Between 1996 and today, 275 women have died violently in this country, 180 have been killed in their own homes and 20 children have died during the incidents where these women died violently. Each one of these deaths is a catastrophe and an absolute disaster.

I have no doubt the Minister is personally appalled by all of these aspects. I respect that the Minister is dedicated to trying to resolve some of these issues that are happening in the country at the moment. The Minister spoke about challenging the norms leading to sexual violence. Another Fianna Fáil TD spoke about zero tolerance. I have no doubt the norms leading to this violence are not being challenged. I have no doubt there is not a zero tolerance approach by this Government. The criminal justice system is not being used to shut down the perpetrators of these crimes. Today, eight- and nine-year-olds are accessing explicit hardcore materials that would have been illegal for viewing by adults just a generation ago. Research at the school of psychology in the University of Galway has shown that almost 60% of teenage boys in this State had consumed hardcore pornography before the age of 13. Pornography has become so easily accessible that many parents find it virtually impossible to exercise control over what their children consume. I spoke to a parent recently who told me that over Christmas their ten-year-old was on their iPad, which they checked. There were two searches. The first search was about Santa Claus and the second was a violent display of oral sex. This is the situation for young children in this country. It is happening at a younger age. It is altering the perceptions of sex and the understanding of healthy relationships. It is leading to physical and mental health problems and addiction. There is no doubt the repeated consumption of violent scenes is changing the nature of young boys and young men in relation to relationships. There is an ocean of evidence now pointing in that direction. Even the children's ombudsman in England has written extensively about how this is a significant cause of sexual violence. We have seen high-profile cases in this country such as the case of Ana Kriegel. It was a heartbreaking, shocking case where the perpetrators - young boys - had accessed horrific violence on their phones. There were thousands of images of murder and sexual violence. That should have been enough for the Government to be kick-started into action but it was not.

I introduced a Bill that would ban the provision of hardcore violent pornography to young children.

I have raised it with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the previous Minister for Justice. All of them have responded in measured tones but all of them have shrugged their shoulders and nothing has happened. Not only is there not zero tolerance of this; there is an absolute tolerance of this in respect of the Government's approach to what is happening. The Government has enough cop on to ban the advertisement of junk food to kids because it knows it leads to behavioural change but it does not have enough cop on to ban the provision of hardcore, violent pornography to those same young boys.

We talk about zero tolerance and I think of Clodagh Hawe, who was a teacher in Oristown National School in County Meath. In 2016, Alan Hawe murdered Clodagh and her three sons Liam, Niall and Ryan. Eight years later, they are still only at the start of a site selection process for building a refuge in Cavan. If a woman wants to get out of a violent domestic situation in that county, she has very little option to do that. There are nine counties across the country at the moment with no refuge: Carlow, Cavan, Leitrim, Laois, Longford, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon and Sligo. I do not see where the zero tolerance exists if there are nine counties where there is not an opportunity for a woman to be able to get out of a violent situation. At the moment, we are aiming for 280 refuge beds by 2026 but the Istanbul Convention says there are supposed to be 450 refuge beds. We are not even near the target as we should have been a few years ago.

With regard to zero tolerance, we have seen the fall in the per capitanumber of gardaí in this country. There are 58 Garda stations around the country where there is not a registered garda. The criminal justice system is breaking down because there are currently no spaces to put prisoners. I found out that 1,000 prisoners were released last year within 24 hours of being put behind bars. This is not zero tolerance. We had the longest Covid lockdowns in Europe where many women were imprisoned with their abusers. We have a housing crisis that entraps women in the situations they are in. Many women have a choice: do they leave the violent situation or do they put their children into a homeless situation? We saw the push to get rid of cash out of society in recent years. Cash gives women a really an important opportunity to have the financial wherewithal to get out of domestic violence. Aontú campaigned vigorously against this. We see young girls in State care who are going missing from unregulated and unvetted special emergency accommodation, who are then being preyed upon by gangs for sexual exploitation. That is not zero tolerance. I have been raising those cases for years and it is still happening.

I recognise there have been developments. I welcome Cuan and the fact that there are many people working in the sector who are doing really good work. I recognise that the Minister has a different approach to this and I wish him luck in it, but it is not zero tolerance with regard to what is happening in this country.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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Domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is a crisis shaped by the modern world, one where smartphones, online pornography and harmful attitudes towards women and girls are fuelling abuse. We cannot and must not ignore how technology has become a weapon in the hands of abusers, nor how degrading content is warping minds, including young minds. Revenge porn, coercive control via messaging apps and the harassment of women and girls online are rampant.

Meanwhile, the widespread availability of extreme pornography is distorting young people's understanding of sex, consent and relationships. Too many boys are learning from violent, misogynistic material, while too many girls face pressure to conform to degrading expectations. This is not just about individual acts of violence; it is about a culture that permits and even encourages to them. When boys are exposed to endless streams of abusive content they risk growing into men who view women as objects. When victims are stalked, shamed or threatened through their own devices, they are left with no safe space. When the justice system fails to keep pace with digital abuse, perpetrators act with impunity.

Government must take stronger action. We need strict enforcement of online abuse laws, including immediate takedowns of intimate images shared without consent and tougher penalties for cyberharassment. We need age verification for pornography to stop children accessing harmful material that normalises violence against women. As Deputy Devine said, we need a ban on strangulation porn and aggressive measures against social media companies. We need an education system, formal and informal, that informs and empowers people and counters harmful stereotypes, teaching young people about healthy relationships, respect and the dangers of degrading content.

We must also confront the attitudes that allow this violence to thrive. Too often, boys are taught to dominate while girls are taught to endure. This must end. We need good men and we need them to step up. We need more than words from Government; we need resources, enforcement and a fundamental shift in how we address this crisis. Ireland must be a leader in fighting abuse online and offline. The time to act is now.

Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent)
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I am going to share with the Minister a Meath East constituent's lived experience of domestic violence. I have her permission and I have anonymised everything. She is a 42-year-old and has been 19 years in an engaged relationship with three children. She was mortgage-approved and she had a wedding booked. During that time, she achieved two third level degrees. Her final assault was in 2020, when she was slammed through a shower door and she fled with her children to a refuge. She had been recorded and controlled for ten years. She was summoned to court by her abuser days after the final assault. Gardaí and Tusla were called in as she was a safety risk, with no mention of the assaults. The refuge, the local authority and legal aid were advised incorrectly of the circumstances and she was ordered to hand over the children without seeing a judge. She acquired a safety order. She persisted with multiple visits to the Garda station, and one garda listened. Reports were ordered but her concerns were passed off by Tusla as parenting issues. A recommendation for parenting courses and children's support therapies ensued.

There was a criminal case against her partner with video evidence but as it was a first offence, there was a slap on the wrist. Unfortunately, no appeal was lodged within the ten-day period. There were repeated breaches of the safety order but they were repeatedly dismissed. The children have been terrified. All agencies were notified but there was no response. There have been threats by the court to the mother because the children refused to attend access visits.

Garda liaison for the children did begin to read between the lines of concern and a coercive control complaint began. First off, her file was pronounced missing. Since then, she has been refused access to her files. Members of the free legal aid team have not complied with the needs of the client, in her opinion, and have been afraid to push back against the system as it is their employer. A second report was thrown out. A new one, the third one, was implemented for overnight access despite the wishes of the children and the mother. In December 2023, the mother was issued with a warrant to attend court but it was the last day of school for the children and she advised the court she had no childcare. She was brought in and threatened with six weeks in Mountjoy if the children were not handed over to their father. Custody arrangements were changed because the mother refused to force the children to go to the father. The mother was stopped from seeing the children because access time was owed to their father.

A complaint was made against the judge but the Judicial Council cannot act. She has had a refusal to release files, and the woman has been forced to represent herself in court. Another report has been ordered in the Circuit Court. This week marks year five of her court experience and she wishes to give this feedback thus far: women leaving domestic and gender-based violence or abusive control face a bigger challenge once they leave. They are dealing with a lack of structure and cross-communication between organisations.