Results 1-20 of 1,070,063 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Johnny Mythen)

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Darren O'Rourke: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Gillian Toole: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Ruairí Ó Murchú: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Peadar Tóibín: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Mark Wall: I thank the Deputy. Back over to the Government side, Deputy Daly has four minutes.

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Martin Daly: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Roderic O'Gorman: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Ruth Coppinger: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Catherine Connolly: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Shane Moynihan: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Paula Butterly: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Louise O'Reilly: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Gary Gannon: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Jen Cummins: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Rory Hearne: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Séamus McGrath: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Erin McGreehan: 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...

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Réada Cronin: 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...