Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Leader for putting this serious issue on the schedule as part of the Women's Aid campaign and as the budget approaches. I also thank the Minister of State for sticking with the issue, which we debated last year but, as he said, nothing much has happened. We are all commenting on the awfulness of the suffering of men and women who are physically abused. In addition, children suffer as a result of domestic violence but we do not hear much about that. Following my contribution to last year's debate, I received an e-mail from schoolchildren who were doing a project on domestic violence and they wanted to highlight the effect of domestic abuse on children.

I refer to Traveller women, two of whom are good friends of mine. They live in poverty and they have a tortuous, unbelievable and cruel existence as they rear large families. They live in the most primitive conditions which we, as members of the settled community, could not even contemplate. I will not reiterate the statistics outlined earlier because action is needed. The Minister of State is optimistic funding will be increased. However, this issue is related to the human rights of victims of domestic violence, including children and Traveller women. As Senator O'Rourke stated, it is unforgivable that insufficient funding is available in the richest country in Europe to staff a helpline for victims of domestic abuse. We should not debate the issue again if the Government does not get it right in the budget because it will only be a waste of time. The Minister of State takes this issue seriously and he looks after the Traveller community in his constituency. However, he must put his foot down with the Minister for Health and Children to secure funding for organisations working in this area. There is sufficient money in the pot to address this human rights issue.