Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. Like Senator Noonan, I pay tribute to our former colleague, Vincent P. Martin, who initiated this legislation in the last term. I commend him on that.

I commend Senator Ryan on her contribution. I am sorry she had to go through what she went through. I can only imagine the pain and suffering she endured. Her sharing of that this afternoon is one of the most powerful contributions I have heard in the Seanad, and it is my third term here. I commend her on her bravery and strength. She has turned out to be a fine young lady and Sinn Féin is lucky to have somebody of her calibre in its ranks. I take my hat off and salute her contribution.

As a man, I must say the statistics that come out in relation to domestic violence are truly shocking. I am saddened that there are men out there who continue to offend in the manner in which they do. That is truly shocking. We can talk about the gaps in refuge for domestic violence sufferers. There are gaps there, although thankfully Government is moving to address those. We can talk about increased sentences and it is proper that we should have that conversation, but the conversation should really focus on why this continues to happen at the scale it does. Clearly, more needs to be done by way of education. It is okay to deal with the symptoms of the problem, that is, more domestic violence refuge centres. They are very welcome, but the fact a woman should be the first person out of the family home is something that needs to be looked at. She should be the last person out of the family home, not the first person.

We men need to look in the mirror and have a good, hard look at ourselves. As Senator Clonan outlined, the simple act of whistling at a female as she walks down the street should not be acceptable and is not acceptable. For a man, it is difficult to understand this is still going on in this day and age. You need to walk in a woman's shoes in order to experience this. I have a daughter living in the city and I relate to Senator Clonan's contribution because she tells me the same stories. It is clearly not good enough. As men, we need to take a good, hard look in the mirror, cop ourselves on and stop this. That is where I would like to see attention focused, going forward.

Back to the business of this evening, I am delighted on behalf of our party to support this amendment. I look forward to the Minister of State's contribution shortly. I commend Senator Ryan again on her contribution. I would be delighted to see this legislation go through the House as quickly as possible.