Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I recognise that the Minister is willing to work on amendment No. 1 that seeks to insert a definition for domestic violence in the Bill and that it is applied to the whole Bill. We are happy to work with the Minister on this matter for Report Stage.

I am concerned somewhat by the message given by the Minister about viewing coercive crime as a crime. We have talked about the type of messages that we send out from here. I am very concerned that a message has been sent that this matter is too complicated. Many of us know people who are or have been in abusive relationships. Therefore, we know how difficult it is to leave such relationships due to the network of control, psychological oppression and the doubt that is planted in the victim's brain. One of the messages that one gets from victims is that when they try to extract themselves from an abusive, coercive or controlling relationship, it is complicated. We reinforce the message that this matter is too complicated, that it is a matter just for the two people involved and that society has no interest because it is so complicated if we simply say it is too complicated for the courts. How the hell is anybody meant to get out of a relationship when he or she knows that society considers what a victim is experiencing to be too complicated for our laws and procedures to take on? I believe it is straightforward. Good work has been done elsewhere. There are practices and behaviours that are wrong and abusive. Such practices and behaviours need to be identified and named. The fact that the list may expand does not stop us from identifying the behaviours that exist now. We must identify them as wrong and ensure that they can be reflected in our courts.As Senator Norris has very adequately said, if we are ratifying the Istanbul Convention we need to engage and deal with coercive behaviour. It shows how silent and invisible this issue has been that we are told that there is not a gap and I strongly disagree with this. To say that there is not a gap, to say that physical and sexual violence and the threat of violence and harassment adequately cover the behaviours we have heard about today, all of those subtle behaviours: the question of isolation; the destruction of relationships; the monitoring - these do not fit the normal threat of violence and harassment-----