Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I offer a word of thanks to all the people who, in towns big and small, in churches and in sports clubs, in buildings and in the open air, came out in recent days to express their outrage and their pain at the terrible event that occurred in Tullamore. It was very moving to see people's response. I hope we can continue to hold the Murphy family in our hearts in the coming days. It is often said at a time of bereavement that the sympathy one gets in the immediate period is great but that it is in the weeks and months, and indeed years, that follow that people need to remember to look out for the bereaved. Obviously, that applies all the more in this case.

When the time is right, we should have a debate in this House about violence in our society.Much has been said in the past week that needed to be said, in particular the focus on men's attitude to women in our society and the negatives in that area that might have contributed to the outrage that occurred. There has also been commentary on what we need to do to analyse what is going on, including where we have been and are going as a society and how we can address negative attitudes, educate people in better attitudes, prevent and prosecute harm and punish wrongdoing. That is all very important.

We need to broaden the lens even further and be ready to talk about all of the different things that are taking place in our society where we see violence. When we congratulate and welcome, as we often do, all of the progress made in our society ,we also need to be unafraid to ask honestly whether there are ways in which our society is getting worse, why that is and whether it is to do with drug taking, mental health issues and how we deal with those who have mental health problems, with rampant individualism or with violence on our screens, digital media and games. We need to ask if it is, to some degree, due to the loss of faith in our society. A whole lot of issues need to be considered.

If and when we discuss this, I am not interested in hearing all of the things the Government is going to do in the immediate term. All of us, including the Government, need to speak after a reflective study on this issue. We all need to join this conversation about violence in our society, where we have been, where we are going and where we might go if we were to get things right.