Seanad debates

Friday, 12 March 2021

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of Catherine ArdaghCatherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will speak on the issue my colleague, Senator McGreehan, raised in relation to the conversation about women feeling safe on our streets. The conversation arises after the tragic death of Sarah Everard in the UK. We should be asking ourselves what we can do about this in this House. We could look at our sentencing laws to start with and outlaw any sort of concurrent sentencing for sexual offence-based crimes. It is outrageous that if someone rapes ten people they will serve one sentence. It should be the case that they know if they rape ten people, they will get their full consecutive sentences and will have to serve every day of them. We could also make sure we have more gardaí on the street and the councils could have more street lighting. Ultimately, as a society and as a mother of two sons, we have to rear our children better and have a better and more open discussion about consent. We need to do much more when it comes to sexual education and we need to be more informative towards our children so we rear the children of this nation better and we do not end up revisiting these situations.

I was speaking to colleagues and friends about this. When I was in my 20s, I lived in town and would walk home every night I was out and felt semi-safe doing so. They say that at the moment they would never do that and if I am going out at night-time now, however many years later, I will be scurrying around like a rat trying to not make myself look in any way like a woman. I put a hat or hoodie up and go about doing my messages.

It is something we need to have a debate on in this House. It is really important because women do not feel safe out there at night time. It is up to us, as legislators, to do better.

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