Lisa McDonald (Fianna Fail)

The idea of a specialist domestic abuse court is a very good one. If a person is looking for a barring order, he or she has to enter in front of the entire District Court. He or she can go in at the back, but everybody can still see him or her. If there is a breach of the terms of a barring order and the matter must go before the criminal courts, the case is heard in open court. That is why we are not securing convictions.

Senator Ó Brolcháin made a point about family law provisions being balanced against men. That is a valid point. I wonder how much domestic violence there is as a result. We need to look at family law and give men far more rights in respect of child guardianship. I would welcome a change in the law, a matter we have neglected.

There are so many laws on the Statute Book that are anti-family and anti-women. I agree with Senator Norris. I cannot see how any association could call itself "pro-family" when it propagates abuse within the home. People from the Catholic Church have told women to stay where they are because they are married and that is where they have to be. That is absolute nonsense. This is a fundamental human right. Migrant women are coming here and suffering abuse and we are not doing anything about it because we think they are operating in a different culture, that some of them are Muslims and we cannot delve into their circumstances. Under the laws of the State everybody has to be treated equally, as that is the essence of a republic. We cannot let any church hide behind its own laws. If we are to learn anything about child sex abuse in cases involving the Catholic Church, we should divorce the State entirely from it and apply the law dispassionately but that is not happening.

We need to have a specialised Garda unit to deal with these issues. I am not sure if the gardaí involved completely understand what they are doing. They receive calls from women, then get to know them and promise to call out to them, but that is it. Then tragedy strikes, as we have seen in my own county on several occasions. We do not want to see this happen again.

The report is fine, as it highlights all of the issues involved. I especially welcome the points raised about education because we need to educate young migrant men not to hit women. If they see it at home, it will happen. We have to stop this in our society. We need to change our structures and laws. We cannot leave this to NGOs alone because the women's refuge in Wexford was denied funding for three months last year by the HSE, which was absolutely outrageous.