Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire maidir leis an rún tábhachtach atá os ár gcomhair anocht. I begin by welcoming the Minister and join colleagues in congratulating her and her family on her personal news.

On International Women's Day this year the EU Commission published a proposal for a directive to combat violence against women and domestic violence through criminalisation of and sanctions for relevant offences, protection of victims, access to justice, victim support, prevention, co-ordination and co-operation. The Commission has also proposed an EU-wide data collection obligation on member states, as there is currently inadequate data collected on violence against women across the EU. That is also the case in this State. There is already some cause for concern about the reaction to the Commission's proposal, with questions being asked about the need for it when we have the Istanbul Convention, which is a human rights treaty of the Council of Europe against violence against women and domestic violence. However, six member states have yet to ratify the Istanbul Convention and the Polish Government moved legislation last year which, if passed, will see the country withdraw from the convention it ratified in 2015.

The Minister has acknowledged this State is not meeting its obligations under the Istanbul Convention to provide adequate accommodation with wrap-around supports such as psychological care and childcare. It is hardly an appropriate response to the convention that Tusla provides one third of the refuge places this State is obliged to provide and, as my colleague Senator Gallagher said, nine counties have no domestic violence refuges at all. Both the Minister and Tusla's recently published review of emergency accommodation advise that the number and range of safe accommodation spaces available to victims of domestic violence needs to increase substantially to meet current needs, projected future needs and international obligations.

The Court of Justice of the European Union published its opinion late last year regarding the convention, which has been blocked by some member states. The court decided the Council can ratify the convention by a qualified majority. This decision has been criticised for its ambiguity in stating: "... nothing precludes the Council from extending its discussions in order to achieve ... closer cooperation between the Member States and the EU institutions in the process of concluding that agreement, which may involve waiting for the ‘common accord’ [in other words, unanimity]." The Commission has said that its proposal for a directive: "... is different to the Convention in that it sets minimum standards for EU Member States within the areas of EU competence, including the criminalisation of cyber violence offences that is not specifically covered by the Istanbul Convention".

While considerable progress has been made with respect to combatting violence against women and domestic violence, more needs to be done by this Government when the following points are taken into consideration. The EU proposal provides for harassment and sexual harassment in the workplace, yet the Government has failed to endorse the International Labour Organization's Violence and Harassment Convention 2019 (No. 190) which aims to eliminate violence and harassment in the world of work. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, among others, has asked it to do so.

The current programme for Government commits to examine the provision of domestic violence leave, yet there is no provision in the legislation as published. Sinn Féin's Organisation of Working Time (Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2020 is a comprehensive, robust and thorough piece of legislation, prepared in consultation with the domestic violence sector, to provide protections for employers in line with those contained in existing leave legislation. If the Government's legislation to deliver on its commitment on domestic violence is not imminent, I urge the Minister for Justice and the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to work with Deputy O'Reilly to progress the Organisation of Working Time (Domestic Violence Leave) Bill so we can collectively deliver on this entitlement on which we are all agreed.

In supporting this motion I am mindful, as I said earlier, of the progress made and the need for more to be made in dealing with a range of related issues such as safe accommodation and other projects aimed at combatting violence against women and domestic violence.