Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil welcomes this Bill. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, back to the House. It is important we acknowledge domestic violence is a significant concern among a certain cohort of people. People often do not know it is happening. It is silent and hidden. I am not going to go into an in-depth technical analysis of the Bill as Senators Martin and Garvey and the Minister's response dealt with that, or the potential unintended consequences or difficulties with the legislation as it is currently drafted. I sense a feeling from the proposer and seconder of the Bill, the Minister, Senator Clonan and others that we are all on the same path with the same objective.

It is a pity we have to have such legislation in the first place because there is so much domestic violence in our society. It is important that, over time, we educate and convince people to have a society where it is just not tolerated. It is not tolerated now but it is happening. It must be the case from the day we are born that we just do not allow this kind of culture, behaviour and acceptance that it is okay to treat other people, especially partners and spouses, in such a way. Most people consider their homes to be their safe space where they can get away from work, society and crime. It is really frightening that people possibly feel more vulnerable and under pressure in their own homes, whether it be due to coercive control, physical violence, intimidation, sexual violence or whatever it happens to be. Senator Clonan shared figures that it happens every hour of every day. It is shocking that it happens to any human being - any woman, primarily, but there are cases involving men as well - that there is a culture of misogyny or just believing it is okay to be harmful, destructive and damaging to your partner, a person you wanted at one point, at least, to spend the rest of your life with. It is the real job of society and the people in this House to just not tolerate those actions and that behaviour and culture. We all need to work on that.

It is not just domestic violence but violence on our streets, in our towns and on public transport. All of it has to be zero tolerance, but particularly for violence against women and in the home. That is my takeaway from this matter. We have to change people's thinking so that this behaviour does not happen. Then we will not need to deal with the victims because there will not be any. In the interim, we must provide support and protection for victims. This is a good Bill. I think everybody is on the same side. I do not want to delay it any further. It is important we support the Bill. We will not oppose it as a party. I am supportive of what the Bill is trying to do while acknowledging the concerns of the Minister and the Department as it is currently drafted. I will hand over to my colleague, Senator O'Loughlin.