Tony Mulcahy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support the comments made by Senator O'Keeffe. We should invite the Minister for Justice and Equality to take this afternoon out of his schedule and hold a debate on domestic physical assault and violence. He should be present. The draft Bill is before the committee but I would like to hear his opinion on where we should go this year and whether we will pass legislation before next year. Senator O'Keeffe is right, in that we can no longer accept the current situation. Unfortunately, since I spoke at the justice committee a number of weeks ago, a further 1,000 or 1,500 assaults have probably been committed but will not result in convictions.

It is critical that we ask the Minister to attend and provide an overview of where he views this legislation going. Why should we not hold a public debate on this matter? Let us put it on the record. Domestic violence has been the scourge of society since time began. Let us hold a public debate on it. Will the Deputy Leader formally invite the Minister to attend the House? We can raise the bar. We must go some way towards solving this problem in 2014.