Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. Myself and the Minister have just left Tallaght, where we were in the company of the formidable Muslim Sisters of Éire, a fantastic group of women who are getting on with the business of plugging the gaps in society. I used the opportunity to talk to them about Dr. Kathleen Lynn and about how she is my inspiration because rather than just complaining or looking on, aghast, at what needed to happen in society to address poverty, she got on and did it. The Muslim Sisters of Éire are very similar. Every Friday night, no matter the weather or the occasion, they are out there delivering warm meals and sanitary and hygiene products to anybody who comes along, no questions asked and no judgments passed.

The conversation moved on to gender-based violence and we heard powerful testimony from one of the women about her own experience of such violence. I too have my own experience of gender-based violence and it struck me that what we are seeing lately is the far right trying to exploit gender-based violence. It is straight out of their playbook and should not surprise us because they always want to try to divide. They always want us looking in the opposite direction to where the risk really lies. We all know, or at least those of us who are honest know, that gender-based violence does not recognise religion, class, or race. We also know that the far right could not care less about women's safety.