Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will do all I can to keep my contribution within the six minutes allocated. I welcome the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and thank him for coming before the House. This is a really important issue. All the issues we talk about in this House are important, but the issue of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and abuse is so insidious and corrosive. When I stop to think about the individuals affected, the victims, I think they must be in the loneliest place in the world. They can be in a busy shop or out and about, but how they must feel and how they must get through every day. It is therefore really important that this House discusses the issue at length.

Senator Seery Kearney talked about the recent report published by Safe Ireland. It compiled statistics from the first six months of the Covid-19 lockdown. The report highlights the enormous increase in the incidence of domestic violence, with more than 4,000 women and children referred. They were not repeat referrals; they were new referrals over that period. There were 34,000 calls to helplines in the same period. That is almost 200 calls every single day. I think Senator Seery Kearney mentioned the fact that there were more than 1,300 requests for accommodation, but how many were not responded to?

The DPP has said there has been an 87% increase in the number of files relating to domestic violence referred to her office. In my constituency, Dublin Central, the chief superintendent for DMR North reported at our most recent joint policing committee a 100% increase in the number of reports of domestic violence. Women's Aid has been running a campaign to reach out to women who are vulnerable, who are victims and who are alone. It is really depressing. Women's Aid has issued statistics that indicate that one in five young women in Ireland has suffered intimate relationship abuse, one in six young women in Ireland has suffered coercive control, and 51% of young women affected experienced that abuse when they were less than 18 years of age. These are young women whose fundamental sense of themselves and their self-confidence is being attacked. One in two of these young women who have been abused experienced the abuse online. That is on their phones, which are in their pockets and with them all the time. That is insidious and invasive.

Abuse takes many forms, including physical, psychological, emotional and coercive.For many people their phone is their lifeline. It is how they contact the rest of their network. It is how they are contacted for work and how they conduct their daily life. However, abusers are using it to insidiously control and destroy other people's lives.

We had the big media story about the 140,000 intimate images released online. I cannot imagine what the poor victims went through and what it did to their sense of self. That is a real invasion and abuse. It is great that the Minister is here to talk about it. The Government has an important role to play and it is taking some actions. All the NGOs and those who give of their time voluntarily are to be applauded and supported. While I know the Government has allocated more than €6 million in the budget to tackle domestic abuse and support victims, Safe Ireland still has questions over what funding it will be able to access. Arising from this debate, I would like it to have clarity on the funding it will get. I understand the funding will come from both the Department of Justice and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

It is important that other commitments in the programme for Government, including a commitment to a third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, are delivered quickly. We need to plan for the refuge space. There have been 1,300 requests for accommodation but seven requests every day could not be met. That means seven distressed individuals were left in a really threatening situation. I welcome that the Government has a plan for additional refuge space. I would like to know the timeframe for delivering that.

I ask the Minister in his reply to speak about the commitment for paid leave and social protection for victims of domestic abuse. We need to update the Sex Offenders Act 2001. If necessary to help advance it, it could be initiated in the Seanad. I welcome the Government's commitment to criminalise image-based sexual abuse and I hope the legislation will be introduced quickly. I would like to see the Government implement the recommendations of the O'Malley report.

While I know it is not directly in the Minister's remit, I ask him in his capacity as a member of Government to take this up with the Minister for Health. The Rotunda Hospital in Parnell Square is known as the world's oldest and largest maternity hospital. It also has a sexual trauma unit. It is desperately overcrowded and its built facilities need upgrading. It has an outstanding request and needs about €2.5 million next year to upgrade the facilities on the west side of the campus. I would appreciate if the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth could speak to the Minister for Health on the issue. I have already made representations and it would be important if we could progress it.