Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I offer my support to those representing the Defence Forces who are picketing outside today. I hope that the Minister will listen to them.

It is a great honour and achievement for Senator Norris to have been a Senator for 30 years and seven months. He can be really proud of himself.

Today I want to highlight White Ribbon Ireland. This is the national movement of the world's largest male-led campaign to end men's violence against women, with a presence in more than 60 countries,. I spoke in Carlow College this week as part of an action day for the campaign and I was reminded of a quote of Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges: "It's not enough to just treat women well. We have to work to make sure all men treat women well." The aims of the white ribbon campaign are to encourage education and leadership in order to change the attitudes and behaviour that lead to men's violence against women by educating boys and men to lead social change and to achieve gender equality. Often we hear the female side of the issue but we cannot exclude men from the conversation. We all need to join in the conversation and contribute if we are to change the narrative. We need to find ways to say that there is never an excuse for abuse. We need to stop disrespectful behaviour by saying that it is never acceptable.