Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will not take six minutes, because I had the opportunity to speak extensively last week during statements on domestic violence, when the Minister, Deputy Harris, was here. However, this a very important Private Member's Bill for which I wished to come down to show my support. We are very pleased that the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, is supporting this important Bill. We talk about domestic violence and the statistics. We have heard the statistics here today and I had the opportunity to read them in to the record last week, but domestic violence obviously goes way beyond the statistics. Harrowing stories happen, are publicised and may be known, but a great many cases are not known about. Many women are living their daily lives being harassed and intimidated and that goes unchallenged.The scale is certainly extensive because very sadly and unfortunately there are some men in Ireland who believe women should be controlled, that those women should be submissive to them, and that violence and coercive control is an acceptable way of achieving those aims. Changing this requires a dramatic change in society, in the views of those men and in terms of what those men see as acceptable behaviour. Brighid McLaughlin had a very interesting article in last week'sSunday Independent . As we know, very sadly her sister died at the hands of her husband. She often writes about this issue. It is important that we hear from the families' perspectives, particularly regarding the parole issue. That is one of the suite of measures we need to look at. I commend Senator Martin on this Bill. He is my fellow Kildare man even if he is an adopted one.