Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Senator Maria Byrne, for giving me her place in this debate and waiting until later to speak to allow me to go to see Gabriel Byrne in the Gaiety Theatre. My wife has come up to go to that show so I cannot reasonably avoid the appointment.

I welcome the Minister to the House. I am very happy with the fact that she has unequivocally stated that there will be a policy of zero tolerance. It is the unanimous view of this House that is how it should be. The Minister will lead on that. In light of her record, I am convinced that will be the case. It is very important.

As the last speaker very eloquently testified - I did not hear the others but I heard him - any form of verbal or physical abuse, any type of violence towards women and any abuse of any description is, of course, wrong. It is violence. It undermines the confidence of the woman in question. In some instances, women who are less confident or not as experienced may be socially knocked out by it and not go to social events afterwards as a consequence. They may become very introverted. It is horrendous. The very recent tragic death, the murder, in Tullamore is the extreme form of this. That is what has brought this whole debate into focus but anything that can be classified as violence towards women is wrong and we should have zero tolerance for it.

I am happy that the four pillars of the Istanbul Convention, to which Ireland is a signatory, are being adopted here in that the Minister will look to prevention, protection, prosecution and policy co-ordination. I will make reference to a few of these pillars in the time I have. With regard to prevention, as a former teacher and as a parent, I believe we need a strong relationships and sexuality education programme in every school. One of the first steps the Minister should take with regard to co-ordination should be to talk to the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, to establish what is present in the schools now and to see how it could be augmented, made better and delivered to every child in the country. That is a basic priority. There should be co-ordination with parents through parents associations and information from the schools so that there is follow-up in the home. As a parent, I get that. It is no good for this to be done in isolation. The same set of values should permeate the home and be reflected there. Children learn good and bad practices from the relationships they witness within the home. That places a great responsibility on parents, whether single parents or couples, to do the right thing, to be seen to do the right thing and to create the right atmosphere. That is very much in the area of prevention and it is necessary.

Protection is obviously important. In her summary later, will the Minister comment on the number of refuge centres and on what she proposes to do to ensure we have an adequate number of refuge places for women who are victims of domestic violence? What does she propose to do with regard to providing care for their children so that they have a support system in the interim that is more than just a physical room and that will allow them to transition to some sort of a normal life outside of their dreadful experience at home? That is in the area of protection.

With regard to prosecution, of course, there should be zero tolerance. There should be no equivocation there. There should be prosecutions. It is unfortunate that human nature is such that we will not achieve these aims by exhortation.

Policy co-ordination in our actions is very important. That involves getting the Department of Health and the social welfare system involved. A unitary and holistic approach is required to ensure that women are supported when they are the victims of violence and that they are helped and get psychological services. Will the Minister comment on the support services she envisages for a woman who is a victim as she establishes herself back into life?

I am very grateful to my colleague, Senator Maria Byrne, and I thank the Cathaoirleach for taking me out of turn. In deference to that, I will not go on, but it is incumbent on every man to stand up today and be unequivocal that there can be no tolerance here.