Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming in for this debate. I am proud to second this reading of the Bill by Senator Lisa Chambers. I start by paying tribute to Una Ring and Eve McDowell. I had the pleasure of meeting them personally today. I have heard them give such brave testimony in the media. Their courage, strength and generosity are incredible. They have endured terrible ordeals and somehow found the strength not only to cope with that and to move forward personally but to actually give further of themselves to other victims and to broader society. It is our great honour and privilege to be here in the Seanad with the Minister of State, to put this Bill before him and to ask him to take it to Government and to champion it for Una, Eve and all of the victims whose names will never be known to many of us. I start by paying tribute to them.

The Bill is about stalking and harassment. Senator Chambers eloquently explained the difference between harassment and stalking. I heard Eve describe it this morning as being fixated. It is behaviour which is fixated, obsessive, unwanted and repeated. Those words convey the intrusive, insidious violence of it as an activity and how it manifests in being followed, watched or observed. Your personal space or identity are intruded upon and invaded. That is before it gets to the actual physical threat. It is a horrendous situation for any human being to be threatened with. I firmly believe that we need the law to recognise this as a particular crime. It causes alarm and distress, both mental and physical, for the victims and for everyone who cares for and loves them.

We as a society should all be distressed and want it to be recognised as a crime in our society and in our law. There would be many benefits to it being criminalised. It would be simple to call it out as a crime, not something to be dismissed or to be confused as being odd behaviour. It is a crime. We need to say that as a society and our laws should say that it is a crime. That will send a clear message to anybody who is thinking about acting in an antisocial way towards another individual that they need to think twice. It also sends a strong message to the statutory and non-statutory authorities. We heard Una talk about how great the support that she got from the gardaí was.

Youghal is a beautiful seaside heritage town and a place where people go for their holidays. When I first heard about it, I said, "Wow, that is happening there." Eve talked about Galway. It is a town where many young people in Ireland go to university and it is a tourist destination. These are the heart of Ireland. These are not dystopian, remote places. These are the heart of our communities. We need to ensure that stalking is a criminal activity in the heart of every community in our country. Every garda needs to be trained to understand that. Every garda needs to be equipped and resourced to respond to victims or potential victims of stalking. It is important that, in progressing this legislation and stating that stalking is a criminal activity, that we as a society are not only calling it out and ensuring that it is not hidden, dismissed and passed over, but that all of the survivors are empowered, supported and valued. All those who are charged with enforcing our laws should know that this is something that we want to tackle, that we will support, resource, train and equip them to tackle and criminalise this activity.