Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)

This week marked the start of 16 days of activism on the issue of violence against women. Women's Aid is leading a 16-day campaign against gender-based violence. Thirty-five percent of women in Ireland have experienced psychological, physical or sexual abuse from an intimate partner. One in four women in Ireland has experienced sexual violence as an adult with a partner, and more than 100 women have been murdered in Ireland in the past ten years. Violence against women is one of the most urgent human rights issues in Ireland today and it is affecting far too many girls and women. The Government has taken action and I commend it in that regard. It has updated the strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and has established Cuan, a new agency dedicated to co-ordinating services and driving change. It has strengthened the laws to protect victims and is updating and driving changes to education programmes that address misogyny in schools and colleges. Investment in refuges, safe houses and changes to social housing guidelines are all important, but ending violence against women is not just a policy goal; it has to reflect a value we all subscribe to. We must all work every day to end violence against women. I encourage everybody to think about this in their daily lives and about the casual misogyny, sometimes perceived as benign, that can take place in clubs, organisations, groups and online chats. We should ask ourselves whether behaviour is misogyny, bullying or a violent attack on a woman. If so, we should just call it out and not be part of it or complicit by being silent. I encourage everybody to do this, not just for the next 14 or 15 days but maybe for the rest of their lives. They should be kind and treat people as they would like to be treated themselves. I am referring not necessarily to how they have been treated but to how they would like to be treated.

Dublin Fire Brigade was established in 1862. It is over 150 years old. It is renowned worldwide as a unique and top-class fire and emergency service but it is under a really severe threat. This issue has been trundling on probably since 2014. I was on the city council in that year. I commend the leader of Fianna Fáil in Dublin City Council, Councillor Daryl Barron, and my colleagues in the Dublin group of the parliamentary party. We have raised this issue with the Minister, Deputy James Browne. There is a genuine issue over the fact that Dublin's fire and emergency services are going to be excluded from the new national mobilisation and communications system, NMACS, a dispatch system. This is not an administrative change; it is an operational change that will have real consequences for the lives of those who go out to save others' lives, those working in our fire service, those working in other emergency services and those who rely on those services. I call for a pause on making the proposed change until there is a full review and I also call for Dublin fire services to be included in the new NMACS.