Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like others, I wish to express my sympathies on the murder of Ashling Murphy. For many women, it is difficult to open a newspaper or watch television any day and not see an act of violence against them. We rationalise those things to psychologically protect ourselves. Every once in a while, a murder happens and it strikes a chord with everybody. We ask how we can possibly protect ourselves. Ashling Murphy was going for a run in the daylight at 4 p.m. in her home town, in what seemed like a safe space. When something like that happens, we all feel the foundations of what we consider to be safety and build up around ourselves, and the strategies that we have. Every time a woman leaves the house, she will risk assess. I have really enjoyed being able to come to work on the bike for the past few weeks, but as soon as we move to late sittings, I will switch back to using the car. That is a conscious decision that I make every day when I come in. I decide how I am going to get myself to places safely. We all do that.

I wish mention the Mongolian national, Urantsetseg Tserendorj. In January 2021, she was walking home from her cleaning job in Google, was attacked and died in the Mater Hospital two weeks later. I remember being very shaken at the time by that murder. I am from the inner city and I walk around the area a lot. It was around the same time that the murder of Sarah Everard happened in the UK. It was a senseless act. A woman was walking home from a job, then lost her life two weeks later.

I also wish to raise the issue of the transport strategy for the greater Dublin area that the National Transport Authority, NTA, has been consulting on. I have raised the issue previously in the House. While it is very much welcome, one glaring omission from the DART+ proposals is a station at Kylemore. There is also an issue with the extension of BusConnects. It comes back to safety. There are a number of children who are coming from Chapelizod and getting the bus to Lucan. They now do not have steps to be able to get to the bus safely. There is no proposed station at Kylemore. It beggars belief for me that we can have massive projects like BusConnects and DART Dublin south-west, yet the dots are not connected when it comes to putting in place that transport infrastructure for communities. Currently, the NTA is negotiating with residents in lower Ballyfermot on getting access to the back of their properties to facilitate the DART extension. That is absolutely fine. However, there is no joined-up thinking about having a station in that big area in south-west Dublin, which is one of the most economically disadvantaged in the country. The next station is in Maynooth.I will continue to raise this issue on the Order of Business until the NTA and Minister begin to listen regarding the need to provide services for the huge population in west Dublin. I refer to putting in place essential public transport infrastructure and creating safe spaces to enable people to use public transport, instead of having to over-rely on private cars.