Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I ask the Leader for a debate on domestic violence in light of the fact that we are nearly at the end of Women's Aid's 16 Days Campaign to highlight the need to eliminate violence against women. We need a debate in this House on the way in which legislation, in particular, could be amended to ensure greater protection for victims of domestic violence and to ensure also greater applicability of preventive measures. I ask for that debate and I note others colleagues on both sides of the House have asked for it too. Such a debate in this House is long overdue.

There is a related matter on which we could have a debate, perhaps at the same time, that is, the treatment of rape cases in court. I was present yesterday at a conference run by the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland, which is to be commended on its commissioning of a study on rape and its treatment within the legal process, which was produced by Dr. Conor Hanly from NUI Galway and a team of researchers there. The shocking findings of this extensive study carried out by Dr. Hanly was that two thirds of rape case reported to the Garda are not brought to trial, in other words, the DPP only prosecutes in one third of cases reported to him as rape. That is a matter of serious concern. We also need to look at the way in which it appears crude stereotyping of rape victims rules out in some cases the prosecution of reports of rape, and that also is a serious concern. Other matters highlighted during the conference included the drinking culture and the impact of binge drinking, in particular, on cases of rape. We need to look at the issue of rape and its treatment within the legal process, and at how we can improve legislation to ensure that the trial process is carried out in a better way and that we see a higher number of rape cases prosecuted.

The Civil Partnership Bill, which was introduced in the other House last week, will be debated in this House in due course. I welcome the introduction of some measure of legal recognition for same-sex couples but, in my view and in the view of the Labour Party this falls far short of equality for same-sex couples. A number of us, Senators Hannigan, Norris and myself, were involved with the civil partnership train from Belfast to Dublin which highlighted the inadequacies in the Civil Partnership Bill.