Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is good to have the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, here in the Chamber. I know it is absolutely crucial for the Minister that we have zero tolerance when it comes to violence, aggression and abuse against women in the home. This is the challenge we have because more than likely, it is people we know to whom this is happening. It is people that women know. It is trusted partners. It can sometimes be in relationships that are breaking down. It is extremely difficult.

I am so supportive of the Minister's drive and focus over the last number of years in bringing this forward. We need a stand-alone agency. We need this in terms of looking at the domestic, sexual and gender-based violence that is happening.In terms of ongoing DSGBV, we need to fight for refuge places. The Minister is very familiar with counties Roscommon and Galway and where I am based in Ballinasloe, which she has visited, where is it difficult because there is a lack of access to refuge places. One of the key priorities of the new agency will be to fight for refuge places in areas that do not have them at the moment. It is a challenge. In Galway, we have COPE Galway. I would like nothing more than to invite the Minister to Ballinasloe this evening, though I am sure her diary might not allow it, where the Lions Club is hosting an event on domestic violence. It is being hosted by Rita Spencer, who spoke this morning on Galway Bay FM. I will also be there. The event is about taking away the stigma of domestic violence, so that all sorts of towns and villages we are able to talk about it, and to talk about supporting both men and women. Men can experience verbal abuse and aggression within the home as well. It is crucial that supports are put in place.

A group of experts has looked specifically at the Istanbul Convention. It has been crucial that there is an Irish member of the group in Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop, who has served as one of the GREVIO experts. She has spoken often about the importance of Ireland being part of the convention. We signed up to it in 2019 and the report has been published. I know that the Minister is taking the recommendations on board. There are areas where we have made huge progress, but there are areas that we have to move forward on. The episode of "Upfront with Katie Hannon" on Monday night really showed the challenges for women going through the court process. Of course, we are making changes around that. I refer to the courts system, how we are going to streamline teleconferencing, how we are going to really support the speed-up of our courts, how we are going to ensure that we are getting gardaí in and out quickly into these types of systems and how we are supporting a victim's journey, which the Minister has always spoken about. It is about how we support the victim's journey from start to finish and how we ensure our legislation is going to do that.

With regard to the legislation that the Minister has seen come through in her time of office, non-fatal strangulation and stalking have becoming offences in a new Act. Coco's Law came into being, which makes the sharing of, and the threat to share, intimate images illegal and an offence. We have seen the communication of that being rolled out. It is not enough that we are putting that legislation in place. We have all seen the ad on RTÉ that shows the young guy sitting down saying that it is not a crime, and a garda sitting opposite him telling him that it is. That is what we need to see. We need people to know the impact of these crimes, and to know that this is a crime. We need to encourage our young women to stand up and to let our young men at every age know that they are also part of this conversation.

Four of the pillars of the Istanbul Convention are protection, prevention, policy, prosecution. When it comes prevention, it is about education. The Minister might like to speak about how her Department is working with other Departments, including the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, on the Active* Consent programme, which is being rolled out through the University of Galway. The programme is absolutely crucial. We need to see workshops happening in secondary schools for transition year, fifth year and leaving certificate students. In my local area, I have engaged with principals around ensuring that those workshops are happening in secondary schools in my town, area and constituency, because we need to make sure that education is happening from a very young age.

I know there are so many elements to this. This is only one part of a huge portfolio that the Minister has, but I know it is a priority for her. When this agency is set up, I want to see refuge places in rural and regional areas. I want to see the roll-out of the 24-hour helplines and support for the likes of COPE Galway in terms of the refuge spaces that are available. We must ensure that we are there, our gardaí are trained and that there is a whole-of-government approach. That is what we are seeing now.