Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We have a very serious matter to discuss today. Some 15% of all women and 6% of all men in Ireland have experienced severe domestic violence from a partner. That would, statistically, put at least three of us in this room in that category. I concur with Senator Hoey that she is, sadly, not the only one in this room who has suffered from sexual abuse. I can personally vouch for that. The sad thing is that I know very few women who have not been harassed sexually or abused verbally at some stage in their lives. As younger women we may have put up with it but now, as older women, we know it is not acceptable. However, there is still a cohort of younger women who are putting up with these low standards which we have to nip in the bud.

One of the important things I wanted to talk about today is the education aspect of this matter. Sometimes, the perpetrators themselves are not even aware that what they are doing is not acceptable because we do not have the vocabulary for it. We might feel it in our gut that it is wrong, whether as victim or perpetrator, but we do not have the vocabulary to use our words to protect ourselves when we are in an uncomfortable situation. Often, having the right words at the right time can deflect a situation before it escalates.

I have been researching this issue and there are some social enterprises around education. Life Connections is one of the only ones I could find that works with adolescents from a preventative point of view. This was a pandemic before we ever had a Covid pandemic and that is one of the missing pieces of the jigsaw. What the Minister said about interdepartmental stuff is great but if we plan to nip this in the bud, prevention and education has to be a proper part of it. Women's Aid was founded in 1974. This has been going on such a long time but the Minister might be the one who finally puts it to bed. This House might do it too, because 40% of the people in this House are female.

I really appreciate what Senator Ward said. It would be great if a lot of men did what he suggested, called out other men and said it is not good enough or acceptable anymore. Sometimes when women try to say such things they are told it must be their time of the month or that they are just being emotional and a woman and so on. It is important for men to call men out as well. Most men are good people but unfortunately they are getting a bad name and there are lots of generalisations about men because of those few. It is nearly more of a responsibility for men than women to call out this activity.

On a positive note, I refer to two excellent courses.There is a level 8 course in Dundalk Institute of Technology, DkIT, that covers domestic abuse and coercion, and looks at real data on how to prevent this. In my home county of Clare some amazing people started Clare Haven Services, which I used myself in the past. Mary FitzGerald, Colette Redington and Gerry Brennan were at the forefront of that. After years of working in Clare Haven Services they realised something else needed to be done and that they could not just firefight all the time. I would describe the service as the accident and emergency side of domestic violence and abuse in that it is at the end of it. They have set up a group called Haven Horizons that looks at the education side and how we can prevent it from happening. I do not believe that anybody is born and sets out to be a perpetrator or an abuser, or sets out to be a victim, but it is happening. There has to be a huge emphasis on it. It needs to be brought to Cabinet so we can all work together, particularly for funding. I have fundraised for Clare Haven Services and for Aware, but these services should not have to be fundraised for. They should be mandatory services. It is such a huge part of who we are as a nation to see how we treat our women and our children, and to see how we treat this huge issue. We have to look at that and not have these amazing NGOs living in fear of not being funded. They should not be charities. They should be State-funded and guaranteed every year.

I must say hats off to the group in Clare, in particular. It will have the first level 6 FETAC course. It will be launched in January and will be available online. It will be open to everybody and anybody. It is to do with education around domestic violence and coercive abuse, which is a huge unnamed and unrecognised issue we also have. Coming as I do from an education background, I believe that we must look at these services and put to bed this horrific and archaic abuse that people have to deal with. I look forward to supporting the Minister, Deputy McEntee. I believe that she could be the woman for the job.