Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is important that the Seanad sends our congratulations to Leona Maguire on her fantastic achievement over the weekend. She has broken many records but the record she broke on the weekend by being the first ever Irish player to win on the prestigious LPGA tour is incredible and noteworthy. She has lifted women's golf and women's sport to a higher level. I congratulate her on that.

Today is the 19th Safer Internet Day and the theme this year is "Together for a Better Internet". We all have to work together with all stakeholders to make sure the Internet is a safer place for everybody but particularly for children and young people. We need to do more in our formal education system to teach our young people how to act in an online world. That is an important message that needs to go forward.

I have no doubt that everybody here saw "RTÉ Investigates" last night. Many of us were shocked by its coverage of the domestic violence situation. It is incredible that breaches of court protection orders in domestic abuse cases have increased by more than 60%. It was heartbreaking to listen to the stories from the women. I was glad that a man who suffered domestic abuse was included as well because it is wrong that there is not one domestic refuge for men in this country and we need to do much more about that. There are also nine counties without refuges for women.

The Minister for Justice has committed to doing more on this. We need an action plan that is very clear in its determination to tackle the root causes. We need to send a strong message so victims will have confidence that the system will support and protect them and that the perpetrators of domestic violence will be brought to justice. While there is a need for extra refuges, we also need a targeted, comprehensive, effective and victim-centred strategy to deal with these dreadful incidents within our courts services. They need to be time-bound as well. We need time-bound policies and actions put in place.

My last words today go to the memory of Maxine Maguire, a young girl I taught in junior infants. Last night was the fifth anniversary of her very sadly taking her own life. She was a beautiful young woman and a wonderful sister, daughter and friend. She presented at hospital with mental health issues, with which she had struggled for a few years, and she was turned away by those she felt would protect her. Very sadly, that led to her attempting to take her own life.

When she was in a physical situation because of her attempt to take her own life, she then got wonderful care from the hospital but sadly it was too late and her life was lost. Her family and friends would say that the care she got when she presented with a physical illness was 100% better than when she presented with a mental illness. We have to acknowledge that Maxine's life mattered and her death mattered. I spoke about this in the other House. We need to be far better at dealing with mental health issues in this country.