John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. Much of what I had wanted to say has already been said and I will not labour the Chamber with repetition. However, I welcome the opportunity to make some points. I welcome the comments of the Minister of State, especially those on forthcoming legislation on alcohol and public health. He identified that a major and significant contributing factor to domestic violence is alcohol, and anything we can do to ensure the responsible consumption of alcohol at a policy level should be welcomed.

I appreciate the Sinn Féin amendment to the motion we tabled. This is something that we can agree on in principle, there is no question about it. It goes a little further than the motion before the House from the Labour Party. The main contention is how to implement the Istanbul convention. I recognise, as did the Minister of State in his contribution, that there are some issues with the implementation. We must be careful to ensure that if we ratify it, there will be no obstacle to our implementing it in a meaningful way. I take the point made by the Minister of State that we need to be careful in our deliberations. I urge that we hasten our deliberations somewhat and ensure that we can have this done as quickly as possible.

The words of the Minister of State about the need for an open and wide-ranging discussion about domestic violence in a public forum are important. It is important that society stands up and denounces domestic violence in all its forms, often and wherever we find it. More important, as a society we need to challenge many of the attitudes because a culture of tolerance, down-playing or underestimating the effects of domestic violence is sometimes fostered. It is important to tackle this in a society which, up to recently, has been rather patriarchal in construction and which, I contend, remains so today. It is important to consider where our attitudes lead to. Sometimes, we see a casual carelessness around domestic violence. Often people who do not experience domestic violence do not fully understand or appreciate the devastating consequences. Silence and stigma are the partners of domestic violence. As a society we need to confront this openly at all times, discuss it and make clear that we will not tolerate it. That is important in tackling the issue as well.

As a former psychiatric nurse I have seen the consequences of domestic violence all too often. Long after the physical wounds or bruises have healed, the psychological trauma goes on. Sometimes this is the case even when the offending party to the domestic violence has been removed from the scene. The long-term effects of it and of the unequal power relationships associated with it have an ongoing effect.

I was taken by the comments of Senator MacSharry and my colleague, Senator Hayden. The burden with regard to formal supports falls largely on the victim of domestic violence with regard to providing proof to the authorities. I have encountered this in my constituency office frequently, as has the Minister of State and every colleague here. It seems that sometimes in the case of housing, the issue raised by Senator Hayden, when people try to remove themselves from a position and look for social authority housing support, there is a requirement for them to prove legal separation has occurred or that there are Garda reports available. The placing of such an onus on a victim who is already traumatised is unfair and something we must redress. The balance should always be in favour of the victim. That is the main point.

It is up to us as a society to challenge our attitudes towards domestic violence. We have come a long way in the past 30 or 40 years, there is no question of that, but I wonder whether we have really measured our progress and what measure of our progress has been taken. The casualness and carelessness that are sometimes portrayed in the language used in this debate might be a measure of the ongoing problem we have.