Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being here again today and for her work on this Bill. I commend Safe Ireland, the National Women's Council, Women's Aid and Barnardos on the great work they have done in making our jobs a little easier. I commend, in particular, the women and children who have experienced domestic violence because without their feeding in of the information and their experiences, the aforementioned organisations would not be able to enable us in what we need to do in terms of this legislation.

Sinn Féin and I support these amendments. I commend all of my colleagues who have put a lot of work into trying to improve this Bill. This is not about changing the Bill but about enhancing it and making it better. Amendment No. 1 in particular is important. It is not meant to be an exhaustive list of the definition of domestic violence. In the absence of training for judges and the judicial and legal systems as a whole, a better definition of domestic violence will give instruction and guidance to ensure better outcomes and justice for women and children experiencing the crime of domestic violence. In all of this, we must be mindful of the crime that it is. If, in terms of this Bill, domestic violence is recognised as a crime and is defined as such, we will have done a service to those women and children.

I am conscious of the time allocated to consideration of the Bill today and the need to have it enacted. As we are speaking and as we heard this earlier in the week women and children are being tortured in their own homes as a result of domestic violence and abuse. Every hour and every day in terms of the passage of this Bill, counts. We need to have it enacted so that it can protect women and children as soon as possible.