Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Today, 25 November, is the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. The UN says violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations in our world today. It remains largely unreported due to the impunity, silence, stigma and shame that surrounds it. In general terms, violence against women and girls manifests itself in physical, sexual and psychological abuse. This includes everything from rape to intimidation, harassment, human trafficking and female genital mutilation. One in three women experiences physical or sexual violence in her lifetime, quite frequently from an intimate partner.

In the Covid-19 pandemic domestic violence has increased dramatically. In my constituency of Dublin Central, the Garda has reported a 100% increase in the number of reports of domestic violence, and that is just the domestic violence that is being reported. In our Ireland of today, violence against girls, young women and women of all ages includes domestic abuse and the image-based sexual abuse that took place on a mass scale last week with the release of more than 6,000 images. Then today we are talking about the events in a school down the country. However, it is wrong of us to demonise or call out one school. We miss the point if we do that. Whatever exactly happened in that instance masks what is happening generally in our society. We have schools all over the country telling girls that they must wear skirts and not trousers, that they must wear their jumpers over their shirts because their bras might be noticed or that they cannot wear Lycra exercise clothing because it would reveal the shape of their bodies. That is all wrong. It forces all the responsibility on young girls at a very impressionable age for adult men's thoughts. That is wrong. It is a failure of our society. When we fail girls and young women, we fail our society. We must all, therefore, on this day and every day call for and promote gender equality and call for the criminalisation of any form of gender violence or abuse. We must all stand up for young girls and young women and gender equality for all our citizens.