Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and the opportunity to speak on this issue to determine how best to stamp out the dreadful crime of violence against women and men. I am glad the Minister of State has chosen to attend in advance of next week's budget.

I too received much documentation. While many Senators have aired the statistics, I want to put to the Minister of State the question of whether we are doing enough to handle the situation. According to the latest figures, more than 9,573 barring orders were made in 2004. In other research compiled by Women's Aid, it was estimated that between 92% and 97% of women contacted were violently treated domestically. Imagine the implications on family life and society, the fabric of which is threatened by such an increase in violence. The Sonas Housing Association, which provides transitional housing for victims of domestic violence, states that between 500 and 1,000 children were forced to use housing refuge to escape from domestic violence in Dublin last year.

The Minister of State has claimed that €12 million has been provided for the Department of Health and Children's support services, that the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is funding voluntary organisations to facilitate accommodation and that the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Garda have been given funding in respect of training to handle domestic violence.

However, the reality is that a number of people cannot be helped. In a recent article in The Irish Times, managers of several refuges in Cork, Dublin, Donegal and Limerick admitted that they must often send women to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul or local bed and breakfasts because their centres were full. Last year, Bray Women's Refuge turned away 276 women and their 326 children because it did not have enough room.

Imagine a household in which this battering is taking place and a woman, who has a child in her arms and fears for her life, is trying to make a telephone call to a refuge centre to determine whether she can get out of her situation, but no one is on the other end of the line. This is the reality that the Minister of State should take to the discussions before next week's budget. We need to put people in centres. Local authorities should become involved. I do not care whether they are hole-in-the-wall centres, but the victims should be facilitated in escaping their immediate situations.

I have also considered how we define domestic violence. It can take many definitions, as has been outlined in the House today. It can be physical, sexual and emotional, the last of which is the hidden form and involves the use of power to control a person, isolating that person from family and friends, manipulating children against him or her, embarrassing them to create low self-esteem. The victim becomes downtrodden and all seems hopeless.

I am painting a very bleak picture for the Minister of State but I urge him to imagine a man in that situation. Money is needed to help these people escape because the abuse of which we speak is on the increase in society. The Minister of State said he was a member of the steering committee and had put forward recommendations to bring perpetrators to justice. I support that and would do more if I were in the Minister of State's position, though I cannot say in the Chamber what I would actually do to perpetrators. He proposed an awareness campaign, which I also support, but a woman or man in such a situation tonight should be able to pick up a telephone to find a way out of their plight.

I appeal to the Minister of State to ask for Cabinet approval for resources to fund offices in every urban area so that victims can pick up a telephone and know they have a place to go. The inability to escape a situation is the reason for many murders, as a person's control disappears under the domination to which they are subjected. Psychologically, such people are dead and have no way out. By giving these people a way out we will build up their self-esteem and confidence. I do not want to read a story in two weeks' time about a person who was unable to connect to a help centre, with horrific consequences.

The Minister of State should stamp out domestic violence by creating awareness and providing the necessary facilities and resources, be they housing, refuges or other facilities run by voluntary organisations to provide an escape route for victims. The Minister of State is very good at his job and will deliver, which I expect him to do next week.