Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

I am glad to contribute to this debate and I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. When Senator White and others put it to me that we should seek such a debate, we contacted the Minister of State's office and he freely and quickly agreed to attend. One might ask what such a debate will achieve. I believe it is important because what we say highlights the issue and gives us a chance to review what has happened and to mark a way forward. Like Senator White, I also attended the Women's Aid conference and was greatly struck by the practicality of its members, to whom I was able to speak informally, and by the way the facts were presented. Those facts were clearly researched and were put in a non-argumentative way. We were given the information we needed.

Women's Aid is a long-established and highly respected organisation dealing with family abuse and domestic violence. That it is long-established means we respect it and appreciate the facts it gives us are correct. Senator Henry has a long involvement with Cherish, one of the earlier women's organisations for single women who found themselves pregnant, and with many other women's organisations. I am glad the views of men and women have been expressed in this debate.

When I started doing county council work many years ago, this issue was beginning to come out into the open. People were beginning to talk about it as a real issue. I remember many late night calls to my house from women who were emotionally as well as physically bruised and who had travelled there by taxi. We would talk over the matter. At that time, there was still an unspoken assumption that somehow a man had a right to abuse because, after all, he was master and lord within his domain. Thankfully, we have moved miles away from that point of view.

People often had large families. If a man wanted to assert his married rights, or whatever he called them, the woman, who knew nothing about condoms which were perhaps not available or who had no contraceptive advice available to her, would not want to succumb and become pregnant because there might be seven or eight children in the home. I remember a woman telling me that she had gone to see a priest who told her it was her job to succumb to her husband. It sounds so antiquated now. When we take the marriage vows, we say "to love, honour and obey", although I know some great feminists will not say "to obey".

The idea that one would have to succumb to violence so that one would keep one's place in the home seems so antiquated now but elements of that remain in that this must be the most unreported crime. The Minister of State correctly said that it is a crime and that the Garda assault unit dealing with it is highly regarded, not only in this country but internationally. At the same time, how many crimes go unreported but are hidden with the victims saying that tomorrow might be a better day and that perhaps all of this might go away? How many women face each day without knowing whether it will be their lot again that evening?

Some 20,000 calls in this regard is a huge number. These calls are made by women who are driven to do so because of the dire situation in which they find themselves. We are in this lovely Chamber having an informed debate and it is difficult to place oneself in such women's or, indeed, men's minds and identify with the anguish they experience. It is difficult to describe, in a few sentences, the fact that love, sex and abuse may form the palette of emotions in one small unremarkable home. I still find vestiges of the idea that women somehow feel they are to blame for the violence wreaked upon them. How could people place themselves in a position where they would have to bear the brunt of such violence? To take up Senator White's point, some women continue to think that they are inferior human beings and that they, perhaps, are at fault for the violence perpetrated against them.

The interdepartmental group established by the Minister of State is to report shortly before the Estimates. I would be glad to speak at our parliamentary party meeting on this issue and to ensure adequate funding is provided to what is a very worthwhile cause.

I pay tribute to Women's Aid. I do not do so only because its esteemed members are in the Visitors Galley. I would do so if they were not present. It does unsung, unpraised and unheralded work. Murky and distasteful as it is, that work must be done. Many young women operate its telephones on a voluntary basis. I hope all the calls will be answered because the Minister of State gave approval in that regard at the launch of the report. Those anguished telephone calls must not go unanswered. Those who make the calls and who are in dire distress must hear a voice which will give comfort and succour. I am glad to contribute to the debate, from which, I am sure, some good will come.