Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Ivana Bacik in her call for a debate on the issue of domestic violence. We were struck last week by the detail of the murder trial that was ongoing which was indicative of what we did not know about people's lives. Nevertheless, we do know about domestic violence. Many people suffer in silence or behind closed doors, but we are aware of the matter which has been raised in this and the other House. There have been various meetings held, but we still seem to have stalled in dealing with it. When it comes to taking action to change somebody's life or do something about the matter, we seem to move into a different space where the issue of domestic violence is treated as a nuisance or a problem to be solved between an individual couple and where the apparatus of the State has nothing to do with it, but nothing could be further from the truth. The continuing work of SAFE Ireland with domestic violence centres across the country, specifically in lobbying and conducting research, is obvious every time it produces a report and it is up to us to keep the issue alive in the Seanad. We are not going to solve all of the problems here, but we need to show that we believe that those involved in dealing with the subject need our continued support. It seems, however, that we have made very little progress, not just from a legal perspective but also from a societal perspective. It seems to be an issue we just do not want to grasp. We have grasped the nettle of child abuse and other issues, but it seems this issue is beyond us, or at least is one we want to keep beyond us for some reason I do not quite understand. I would very much welcome an early debate on it, in which we might perhaps specifically consider the findings made in the report rather than the detail of domestic violence. We must consider ways by which the law could be expanded and added to.