Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-12 ============================================================ Aubrey McCarthy (IND), University of Dublin I thank the Minister for being here for this very important debate. As a young child growing up in County Kildare, there was domestic violence in my own house. My mother was a wonderful lady and a figurehead for us all to look up to. She had to go through the courts. There was very little protection at that time. There were no refuges and nowhere to go. My mother had to go through court proceedings, the High Court and all of that. It was a very dark time of my life. I have no doubt it impacted on me and influenced my setting up Tiglin, whereby we help women who are marginalised and have set up various safe places for women. Now, at 54 years of age, I consider, as my colleague Senator Comyn noted, that we are dealing, in 2026, with something that should no longer be happening and which should be a done deal. Three years ago, our nation was shaken to its core by the brutal murder of Ashling Murphy. That young woman, who was in college with my niece, was full of promise and was a wonderful musician. She was taken from her community and her family. Her death was a moment that stopped us all in our tracks and we all hoped it would be a turning point. I believed it was such at the time in that we seemed finally to confront male violence and condemn it for what it is. However, as Women's Aid recently noted, women in Ireland are no safer today than they were on the day Ashling died. A statement like that gives me the horrors. Since 1996, 275 women have been violently killed in the Republic. Two thirds of them were killed in their own homes and more than half were killed by a partner or former partner. They are not just random numbers; they were people with lives and families. My own family could have been a statistic in this regard. An Garda Síochána has published statistics showing it dealt with 65,000 incidents of domestic abuse in 2024. That is 1,250 every single week. This shows the huge scale of domestic abuse. It seems that is what we are facing at this moment. The reason I support this motion is that it recognises that domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is an absolute scourge in our society and is still very prevalent. I witnessed it as a child but it is still very prevalent now. That just cannot be. This cannot just be seen as a men's issue. It is a cultural and political issue and it demands a whole-of-society response. I welcome the progress made under the zero-tolerance strategy, including the increased funding, the legislative reforms and the expansion of refuge places. However, there has not been enough. We need more places and victim supports. The steps forward show progress but they are just not enough at this stage. Safety is what women and children in this country deserve. We know that at least 280 refuge spaces are promised by the end of this year. That is what is needed, and I hope they are delivered. I also hope every county in Ireland will have at least two safe homes for women who need access to them. We need to accelerate the delivery of the 94 safe homes and the 193 refuge units already planned, as well as the additional 50 units under construction, and ensure they are completed without delay. These refuges are not luxuries; they are lifelines. We also need to confront a deeply disturbing reality my colleague mentioned. Some accommodation providers are exploiting vulnerable people through so-called sex-for-rent arrangements. Such predatory behaviour is coercion and abuse and it absolutely has to be criminalised. I am in total in agreement with my colleague on this. I support the swift passage of the criminal law and civil law legislation to ensure this practice is criminalised with the full force of the law. Another area in which reform is urgently needed is the handling of counselling notes in sexual assault trials. This is a major issue. At present, the notes are routinely disclosed, which causes the re-traumatisation of victims. It discourages many victims from seeking the help they need, and that is definitely not justice and it is not acceptable. It is essential that this issue be addressed. I also want to refer to the accessibility online of violent pornography, which presents a distorted view to younger people. That absolutely has to be confronted. That is why initiatives such as the Greystones initiative It Takes a Village, which is fantastic, need to be supported and funded. I commend my Fianna Fáil colleagues on the motion. It acknowledges that, while progress has been made, the work is far from finished. It is about ensuring the zero-tolerance strategy is fully implemented, fully funded and fully delivered. It is also about ensuring every woman and child in this country can live free from fear. We owe this to the memory of the 275 women, including Aisling Murphy, whose lives have been taken since 1996, to the 32,000 women who contacted Women's Aid last year and to every woman and girl growing up in Ireland today. By working together, we can make zero tolerance a reality. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-12/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:55+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-12