Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach. I stand today with colleagues and a nation in expressing my deep sympathy to the family and friends of Ashling Murphy. As a nation we joined in the grief that the family, her friends and community suffered and I hope that that grief and the loss of her life will not go to waste. As legislators in this House and as a House, we need to ensure we are at the very forefront of the discourse to ensure there is a cultural change in our society. We need to discuss topics like consent, access to pornography, looking at our model of education and whether same-sex schools are appropriate, ensuring domestic violence refuges are properly funded, and looking at a dedicated Ministry and Department to end gender-based violence. There are so many things that we can do in this House, not just purely from a legislative perspective but from commencing the discourse and leading civic society along to ensure we see a cultural change towards gender-based violence, as the Taoiseach said in the Dáil earlier. It is incumbent on us as mothers, parents, aunties and uncles to ensure that our daughters and sons know how to treat each other equally and that it transpires down the road that we see this cultural change. I join again with the family in expressing our deep sympathies to them. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis.