Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the Senators for their contributions. I thank those who have given of their own personal lived experience because it is not easy to do, certainly not standing in Parliament. Indeed, I thank those who have spoken on behalf of victims and survivors.

I thank everyone for their proposals and suggestions. I genuinely mean this. There is no right or wrong answer. I want to work with everyone. Where there are suggestions and proposals, I have obviously taken note today but if there is anything further that Senators wish to give to me, I would very much like to and will engage with the Senators on it.

I stated at the outset that there is no one person or one group, no one policy or one law, that will address this issue. It is about collectively, each and every one of us, working together in this House and in the Dáil. It is Government, all Departments, State agencies, the community and voluntary sector, and front-line workers, and each and every one of us. It is, at the crux of all of that, listening to victims, listening to survivors and listening to that lived experience.

We need to make this moment count. I say that in no way ignoring, removing or diminishing the 244 women who have been killed since 1996, and those before them. It is in no way to diminish the lived experience of the many victims and survivors who we have heard from or, indeed, the many women who are at home or will go home today and are in fear for themselves and for their children, but we need to make this moment count. I will do everything I can to make sure that I play my part and I would ask that each and every one of us does what we can to play our part and to make this moment count.

I thank everyone for their contributions. I look forward to working with Senators. I will not repeat all of the work that we are doing. Obviously, this involves not only the Department of Justice but each and every Department and each and every one of us in society trying to tackle this issue.

To comment on zero tolerance, I appreciate it might seem aspirational but to me there is no other alternative as a goal or objective. We cannot have anything less than zero tolerance, either in the criminal justice system or in society. While it might seem like an aspirational goal, as far as I am concerned there is nothing more or less that we can aspire to than zero tolerance of any kind of violence, abuse or discrimination against women.