Ivana Bacik
Dublin Bay South · Labour Party · Ireland
“Just today I and other local representatives got an email from the owner of two restaurants in Dublin city centre about this issue. The Minister of State’s brief includes not only the circular economy but also small business.”
“The Bill Deputy Sherlock and the Labour Party are proposing is not one we suggest is a silver bullet or a panacea but it offers one small, constructive mechanism to address the dysfunction in waste services.”
“In Dublin Bay South we have superb Tidy Towns organisations that I am proud to work with from Ringsend and Sandymount across to Portobello in my area to Rathgar, Rathmines, Terenure, Donnybrook and Ballsbridge. We see really important work being done by Tidy Towns organisations.”
“The owner says he no longer has space to accommodate additional recycling bins, cannot leave recyclable waste out for collection and cannot leave flattened cardboard outside for collection. Private waste companies must send a vehicle to collect this directly from premises. This is costly, inefficient and unnecessary.”
“I do not mean just in Dublin, though Deputy Sherlock and I are focusing on Dublin and most of the TDs present are Dublin ones, as clearly this has ramifications across the country and the dissatisfaction and the concerns Deputy Sherlock’s constituents and mine are expressing are ones felt across the board.”
“We want to see a move, as Deputy Sherlock has it in the Bill, from competition in the market to competition for the market and this Bill would represent an important positive step on that journey to quality public services provided by the State and to remunicipalisation. Deputy Sherlock has set out the detailed provisions in the Bill.”
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“In Dublin Bay South we have superb Tidy Towns organisations that I am proud to work with from Ringsend and Sandymount across to Portobello in my area to Rathgar, Rathmines, Terenure, Donnybrook and Ballsbridge. We see really important work being done by Tidy Towns organisations. They are addressing what is currently a real problem with litter collection and waste management in this city and this country. I urge the Minister of State to support the Bill on Second Stage and let us continue the debate about how we can improve services. Since we are on the last sitting day, I want to thank the Ceann Comhairle, her staff, the ushers, the security staff and all the support staff, catering staff and everyone in the House who makes our lives and work environment better.”
“We want to see a move, as Deputy Sherlock has it in the Bill, from competition in the market to competition for the market and this Bill would represent an important positive step on that journey to quality public services provided by the State and to remunicipalisation. Deputy Sherlock has set out the detailed provisions in the Bill. I ask the Minister of State again to reconsider this and support the Bill past Second Stage. It is a Bill that is of significant interest to constituencies across the country and so many people, like the business owner who emailed me, and many individual householders across the country are, out of frustration, addressing waste, illegal dumping and litter issues by themselves. I pay tribute to Tidy Towns organisations.”
“I do not mean just in Dublin, though Deputy Sherlock and I are focusing on Dublin and most of the TDs present are Dublin ones, as clearly this has ramifications across the country and the dissatisfaction and the concerns Deputy Sherlock’s constituents and mine are expressing are ones felt across the board. We are therefore disappointed at the Government’s decision to oppose the Bill. This is very much a broader issue for the Labour Party. Waste management is an essential public service. It is a climate issue, as I have said, but also one about public services. We want to see remunicipalisation. We have been working with the trade unions on this. We have supported SIPTU and Fórsa’s More Power to You campaign, which is a fight for stronger public services.”
“We will be very happy to work with him on developing the broader, evidence-based proposals he speaks about so rightly and which we are in support of. We would have been glad to work with him and Government on how to amend the Bill and work on a broader framework for waste management that addresses the dysfunction. I am concerned to hear the Minister of State say there is an independent feasibility study without giving any timeline. I understand that was due to be published some months ago. Perhaps he or his Government colleagues might address when we are going to see that study report and hear what precisely are the new mechanisms the Government is proposing to fix the dysfunctional waste system.”
“The Bill Deputy Sherlock and the Labour Party are proposing is not one we suggest is a silver bullet or a panacea but it offers one small, constructive mechanism to address the dysfunction in waste services. It is a source of great disappointment to me, Deputy Sherlock and the Labour Party to hear the Minister of State say the Government is opposing this Bill. He has acknowledged the Government shares many of the aspirations underpinning this Bill. We want high-quality services and strong environmental performance. We all recognise waste collection is a climate issue and an environmental issue. We all support the move to a circular economy and want to eliminate illegal dumping. This being the case, why can the Minister of State not reconsider his view and let this Bill pass Second Stage?”
“The owner says he no longer has space to accommodate additional recycling bins, cannot leave recyclable waste out for collection and cannot leave flattened cardboard outside for collection. Private waste companies must send a vehicle to collect this directly from premises. This is costly, inefficient and unnecessary. He makes a number of other points but his argument is the burden of solving the city’s waste problem has been transferred from the council to small business, many of which have no physical means of complying and will incur significant additional cost. For householders expressing the concerns I and Deputy Sherlock have outlined, and for small businesses too, waste collection services are simply not working. That is why we need to see a change.”
“Just today I and other local representatives got an email from the owner of two restaurants in Dublin city centre about this issue. The Minister of State’s brief includes not only the circular economy but also small business. The restaurant owner said he fully supported the council’s ambition to improve waste management to keep our city cleaner but that commercial waste regulations introduced since December 2025 are creating serious practical difficulties for many hospitality businesses, especially those operating from older city centre buildings with limited storage. He went on to say one of his greatest frustrations is that the regulations are making it harder to recycle. That is a real concern when we are all so committed to seeing the circular economy work and to meeting climate targets on waste.”
“There were very concerned also about all sorts of issues like illegal dumping, as Deputy Sherlock mentioned, the proliferation of different companies - they see quite a number of different lorries going up and down the same streets - not to mention the seagulls and foxes puling apart binbags on the street. My constituents in Dublin Bay South express similar concerns to me daily. In Portobello, across the south-east inner city and across the constituency I hear from constituents and experience myself these very same issues and concerns about waste collection and how these services are run in Dublin. For residents and businesses alike it is fair to say, as Deputy Sherlock has done, that the waste system is currently dysfunctional.”
“I commend my Labour colleague, Deputy Sherlock, on her work on introducing the Waste Management (Single Household Waste Collection Service) Bill 2026. It is a tribute to her tenacity that she has worked for so many years on this issue. It is the culmination of a good deal of work across her constituency of Dublin Central and I welcome her visitors in the Gallery from Stoneybatter, Phibsborough, Smithfield and Broadstone. From canvassing alongside Deputy Sherlock for our candidate Ruth O'Dea in the recent Dublin Central by-election I know just how pressing an issue waste collection is in the constituency. It came up extensively on the doors. People were very concerned about the changes that are proposed.”
“Clearly, the most substantive issue is the delay in providing approval for reimbursements. Skyclarys is already being reimbursed in other EU countries. We need to work with other EU member states to reduce costs in line with the Irish EU Presidency priority of competitiveness. Can the Taoiseach give the families some indication that the approval-----”
“Yesterday evening, I met a group of individuals who have Friedreich’s ataxia and their families here in Leinster House. They are calling for urgent access to Skyclarys, the life-changing drug for those living with this rare, degenerative neurological condition. I offered them my full support and that of the Labour Party. My colleague Deputy Sherlock has already given them her full support. I was with them when the very disappointing news filtered through that the HSE drugs group had deferred its decision on approval of public funding for the drug. The news in this regard was leaked by means of communications with public representatives as opposed to officially. the Taoiseach acknowledged earlier that there has been poor communication with the group. I ask that this be addressed.”
“That is at the heart of the Labour Party's proposals and, indeed, the proposals of other Opposition parties. Central to provision is that promises on delivery must be kept. Should the developers of the Irish Glass Bottle site fail to honour the legally binding 15% planning condition, legal action will have to be taken.”
“The Taoiseach can quote figures, but I have already quoted to him the shocking figure relating to those who are homeless. Let me also quote figures published just this week by the AIB construction purchasing managers index. Those figures show residential building contracting for the third consecutive month. There was a sharp contraction in construction activity in June, down to 45.4% from 50.2%. I use the debacle over the Poolbeg site to illustrate the difficulty the Government is in. The Government's overreliance on the private sector has simply failed to deliver homes at the necessary scale. Construction, including residential construction, is slowing. The private sector has a significant role to play, but the State needs to take on a far more prominent and proactive role.”
“Will the Government use every lever at its disposal to tackle the housing crisis? Will the Taoiseach ensure delivery of the social and affordable homes promised at the Irish Glass Bottle site, and indeed across every community where they are so badly needed?”
“The agreement was to provide for the delivery of 900 social and affordable homes in an area where housing is desperately needed, where people are living in damp, mouldy homes in Pearse House, Markievicz House and other places with stairwells literally falling down. It is an area where market rents are sky high. An apartment on the Glass Bottle site rented privately costs more than €4,000 per month, yet the Minister for housing has been told that provision of much-needed social and affordable homes may now be delayed. Where will my constituents go? Mere weeks ago, the Minister, Deputy James Browne, wrote that the most powerful tool we have to tackle homelessness is the delivery of social housing. It is possible, if we are determined enough, to use every single lever at our disposal.”
“The Government's housing policies have failed: policies on shed-sits, on evictions and rent hikes, on vacancy and dereliction but, above all, policies have failed to deliver on homes and social and affordable housing. Let us take the Irish Glass Bottle site down the road in Poolbeg, where nearly 4,000 homes are set to be provided. At the weekend, letters uncovered by the Irish Independent revealed that the delivery of the social and affordable component of housing there is under threat. The Taoiseach knows there is a long history to this development. He will know it is the subject of a good faith agreement between the Department of housing, the developer, Dublin City Council and local residents.”
“She is relying on the goodwill of family and friends to keep a roof over her head. Another mother who is working full time was also evicted into homelessness a year ago. As a result, she has seen a deterioration in her youngest child, who has additional needs. I have supported her as she has been applying to every Government support scheme available but nothing has come good for her. Incredibly, her family has been deemed ineligible for priority treatment on exceptional grounds. Her ordeal should be unthinkable but, sadly, it is no longer a rarity. All of us know of other families in similar situations because, under the Government, homelessness has sadly been normalised and evictions have continued apace, including mass evictions.”
“The housing crisis continues to cut deep. The numbers in homelessness remain shockingly high. There are over 17,000 people in emergency accommodation, including 5,583 children. That is an appalling statistic and each figure represents an individual human tragedy. While the Dáil is in recess, sadly, many more people are likely to see an eviction notice land in their letterbox, and all of us know of those who are directly affected - like the young man who contacted me this week. He and his neighbours are being evicted at the end of the month with nowhere to go. Or like the young woman I am supporting, who was evicted into homelessness more than a year ago now. She has four children, two with significant disabilities, one of whom requires 24-hour medical care, and she has yet to be housed.”
“Labour has been to the fore in looking for adequate supports for schools. Principals tell us that they feel they have no choice but to levy parents because the public funding they receive is just not enough to provide the supports they need to ensure that children will be taught the digital skills that will help them access decent jobs. High-quality education costs money and the Labour Party believes that the Government need to do more to ensure resourcing in education.”
“This is despite the fact that she acknowledges, in some cases, that families have been directed by schools towards commercial credit arrangements to meet the cost of buying a digital device for their children. As others have said, no parent wants their child to be without a digital device when others in the class have them. This is mere guidance; it does not really offer much support to parents. We have learned that three in ten schools are still requiring that parents cough up the expense. In a cost-of-living crisis, parents need the Minister of State to have their backs and to support them, as our motion asks, by restoring grants, reducing fees and enforcing what is now only guidance and is being ignored by many schools that are still requiring parents to purchase digital devices. The schools need to be supported, too.”
“We acknowledge progress on hot school meals and schoolbooks. These are policies that Labour has been pushing for years. However, half of the respondents to the credit union survey say that their costs have gone up since last year. The trend is going in the wrong direction. Education is becoming less accessible due to costs, when education in a republic must be a right and not a privilege. Deputy Kenny rightly focused on the digital divide in his motion. We know that the Minister has written to schools to offer guidance. I am looking at the letter. It clarifies that there is no requirement for students to have their own laptop or device for the junior or senior cycles. That is welcome. However, the Minister then says she appreciates that decisions on the use of digital devices rests with the board of management of each school.”
“Children are going without essential educational equipment or are suffering the trauma of seeing their parents grappling with financial pressures, taking out loans to pay off loans and going without basic essentials just to fund an education that, as my colleagues have said, is free in name only. This week, research from the Irish League of Credit Unions shows that more than one in four families are getting into debt over school costs. Nearly 60% of parents say that back to school costs are a financial burden. It is no wonder. The average so-called voluntary contribution in primary schools is close to €100 per child and €150 in secondary schools. I know that the Government will say what it has done to ease the pressures on families. I anticipate that is what the Minister will be saying.”
“We all know that school costs continue to weigh heavily on families. I commend my Labour colleague, Deputy Eoghan Kenny, for proposing this important motion at this time. We are all hearing it from people in our constituencies. I hear it weekly from residents of Dublin Bay South. Desperate parents are telling me what they have to sacrifice to ensure that their children can feel normal at school. People are utterly squeezed by the education policies of the Government and, indeed, the schools. It causes immense distress to parents, principals and teachers but most of all, it is impacting on children in Dublin Bay South and every other constituency.”
“In conclusion, Taoiseach, Tánaiste, members of Government, and, in particular, survivors, today is a very important day. We mark the wrong that was done to you as survivors and to the other survivors who continue to suffer in silence and who have not or who have not yet come forward. It is for survivors to be the arbiter of whether the State gets its response today and over the coming weeks and months right. We know the report points us in the direction that we must go but we also need to hear and learn from you what we can do better as we go forward. I thank survivors again. I pay tribute to you and acknowledge all of you who are not here today who have not yet come forward publicly. Today is for you. It is for all survivors of abuse. We are thinking of you and we stand with you.”
“We have learned over recent decades about failings in previous redress schemes. We learned from those. The State must also look at taking measures that are being proposed, for example, to ensure that redress will be forthcoming from religious orders because there has been that aspect, in that it has been very difficult for survivors to recover redress where religious orders have been involved. Just last week, the Government voted to delay the Labour redress Bill by six months, a redress Bill which would ensure that survivors could pursue religious orders or other unincorporated bodies for redress where they have acted to enable or facilitate sexual abuse of children. I reiterate my call on the Government to ensure that work can be done quickly to pass that Bill into law.”
“Putting such an offence into law would show that no one is above reproach, whatever their position of privilege, and that where anyone puts others in harm's way or fails to take steps to remove them from harm's way, they will be responsible. I reiterate Labour’s strong support for the introduction of that crucial new offence and for the implementation of other recommendations of the report. I welcome the Taoiseach's commitment to see legal proceedings that are still in being against the gardaí resolved swiftly, and indeed the commitment that alternative means of redress outside the legal process will be examined by the State. This is very important. Clearly, the State cannot turn back the clock to undo failings or even complicity but the State can and must do better now.”
“The State's response and all of our responses as legislators must be to ensure that survivors' interests are at the fore of all considerations and that responses are survivor-led. The report makes several very important recommendations. It recommends an urgent review of the need to introduce a criminal offence of misconduct in public office. We are told that the Law Reform Commission is now considering that measure, which is very welcome. We must proceed with this. Placing such an offence on the Statute Book would help to undo what we now know is a dangerous say nothing culture that prevailed through much of the 20th century.”
“I pay tribute to all those journalists, gardaí, and legal teams who took this on and ensured in the end, along with courageous survivors, that this investigation would commence and that Bill Kenneally would be convicted and jailed in 2016. As we know, he died last month. With this report, we finally have a fuller picture not just of his crimes but of the failures of the State. No institution comes out of the report well, not the gardaí, not the health authorities, not the sporting bodies, and certainly not representatives of Fianna Fáil or the Catholic Church. I welcome this State apology and the Taoiseach's words on behalf of his party. That was very meaningful. What comes next?”
“The former Deputy did not formally report this to the relevant agencies. Instead, he too sought counsel from Billy Kenneally and Monsignor John Shine. Again, the only substantive step taken was to arrange further psychiatric treatment. At that point, three influential members of the Kenneally family were on notice of Bill Kenneally's crimes, namely a serving public representative, a former public representative and a senior member of the clergy. This was a microcosm of the church-State collusion we now know caused and delivered some deep hurt and trauma to women and children in particular in Ireland's recent past. A full Garda investigation into Bill Kenneally began in 2012.”
“Instead, Sean Cashman, the acting chief superintendent in Waterford, contacted Bill Kenneally's uncles who were, in the words of the report, "prominent public figures". Mr. Justice White is highly critical of the decision to contact retired TD Billy Kenneally and Monsignor John Shine. Mr. Justice White notes that a scandal involving their nephew being made public was not "an attractive prospect" to them. A chilling phrase again. As a result, this sadistic perpetrator was left to circulate in the community and given continued access to other children. Cashman deviated from humane or proper procedure, giving Bill Kenneally a mere warning and referring him for psychiatric treatment. The report documents how in 2001, some 14 years later, contact was again made, this time with then TD Brendan Kenneally.”
“I welcome its clear finding that for far too long there was a clear dereliction of duty on the part of senior gardaí in dealing with Kenneally's despicable crimes. The consequences were grave. Had proper procedures been followed in the 1980s, we know many children could have been protected from suffering at Kenneally's hands. Contact was made with gardaí in 1987, and the commission has found that clearly that gardaí at that point had the power to arrest Kenneally, search his dwelling and car and detain him pursuant to section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984. That Act, which had been commenced, permitted arrest and, crucially, detention for interrogation. However, that did not transpire.”
“The report states, "Bill Kenneally held a trusted voluntary position as a basketball coach and also a privileged place in society as part of an extended highly regarded family in Waterford." This chilling phrase reminds us of just how Kenneally was able to get away with this abuse of power, how he tortured young boys over many years in horrific ways, how he exploited his position of authority and his privilege to abuse boys and how he silenced boys and young men by means of blackmail and intimidation. The report also reminds us that when some of his young victims found the courage to report him, their bravery was met with inertia or worse by gardaí. The report is unequivocal in that regard.”
“The South East Commission of Investigation submitted its final 419-page report to the Minister on 8 June. I commend Mr. Justice Michael White and his team on this significant piece of important work. It is a report that documents the depraved and systematic sexual abuse of children by the paedophile, Bill Kenneally. It also sets out the chronology and detail of the subsequent mishandling of allegations against Kenneally. The details are nothing short of horrendous. So many young lives were destroyed by Kenneally's heinous crimes. It was such an abuse of power.”
“I am glad to speak for the Labour Party in today's important debate. I welcome our guests in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery. I pay tribute to all of the survivors whose courage has made this report and the State apology happen. I pay tribute to Jason Clancy, Paul Walsh, Kevin Keating, Colin Power, Barry Murphy, Simon O'Toole, Gerard Mullane and all those who were abused by Bill Kenneally. My thoughts are with those watching at home, as well as those here in the Gallery. For decades, you and they have had to carry a deep trauma. While there is nothing that can make amends for the terrible abuse inflicted upon you as children, I hope that the State apology will be of some solace. I welcome the Taoiseach's apology. I also welcome the report.”
“It might be possible to negotiate to change it to put in an interim payment method. There must be a sensible way to resolve this. The Taoiseach needs to get the justice Minister to engage to resolve this dispute before any more criminal cases are impacted-----”
“A deepening crisis is developing in the criminal justice system. More cases face delays due to the absence of solicitors. More solicitors are resigning from the criminal legal aid panel. This is a mess of the Government's own making. The justice Minister needs to intervene to end the crisis arising from the way in which he has introduced criminal legal aid fees' reforms. He should release the data on the reasons for adjournments, and he should engage urgently in dialogue with the Law Society to resolve this. The Minister said yesterday that he reserves the right to make, in his words, tweaks to his reforms. In one obvious tweak, he could look at section 32 of his SI 303 of 2026, which specifies that the fee will be payable upon the issuing of the final order by the court concerned.”
“However, we overcame those issues at Tuam through working together constructively. Where there is a will, there is a way on this. With the right political will, the objections can be overcome and the difficulties can be overcome. We can use modern methods of technology to geomap sites to look at identifying potential burial grounds. I think the Taoiseach will agree with me it is deeply chilling to read that the conditions include that the construction will stop if human remains are found. That is not acceptable on a site like this.”
“I have listened carefully to the Taoiseach's response and I thank him for his considered engagement. I welcome his saying that there should be a period of reflection and examination. It is not too late to look at other options beyond the CPO option. It is possible now for the Government to engage with the developer, and I ask that it would consider doing that. It would have the support of the public. Nearly 10,000 people have signed the petition calling for a CPO. However, it does not have to be by CPO that the site comes into State ownership so that it can become and be preserved as a site of conscience. Last night, Cork City Council unanimously agreed that the site should be acquired by CPO. There is huge support for this. I walked to the site with Carmel Cantwell. I know the issues and the scale of the site.”
“If the Taoiseach genuinely believes, and I think he does, that the site should have been acquired, then there is a moral imperative on the Government to act now. The State should secure Bessborough through compulsory purchase, if necessary, or by negotiating with the developer. It is not too late to do this. No building work has started yet. Bessborough must be brought into State ownership, properly investigated, preserved as a site of conscience-----”
“This time, we have an opportunity to prevent a wrong from happening because there are babies unaccounted for and living survivors, like Terry Meyer in today's edition of the Irish Examiner , telling us that they witnessed burials on the grounds of Bessborough. This is a live issue, and we still have time to do the right thing. Imagine if we had concreted over the site at Tuam before Catherine Corless had carried out her incredible work there. Imagine what would have been lost. We cannot allow that to happen at Bessborough. Two weeks ago, the Taoiseach conceded in this House that Cork City Council should have compulsorily purchased the site years ago. Let us approach this debate with honesty. The Taoiseach said that. I agree with him. However, Cork City Council did not acquire the site under CPO, so what now?”
“There is huge cross-party agreement on that. Last Thursday’s decision has understandably caused this outpouring of distress. The decision was made without access to relevant records. That has already been debated that to and fro, but I think we can all agree that it was made without access to all relevant records and without the benefit of modern technology being used to survey the grounds extensively. Often when we talk about institutional abuse, it is in circumstances where the Government is trying to make amends for terrible wrongs that have already happened in the past. I am thinking of the Bill Kenneally case, which we are going to be discussing this afternoon.”
“I was there with survivor advocate Carmel Cantwell, Labour Senator Laura Harmon and our councillors, Ciara O'Connor and Peter Horgan. We saw at first hand the very poignant memorial bearing the names of just some of those women and children who lived and died at Bessborough. Survivors in the local community had to assemble this memorial themselves because there is so little to mark the suffering of the thousands of mothers and babies who passed through that institution over many decades. Of the 923 babies died there, just 64 are accounted for. Over 800 babies are missing. Standing at the site, the weight of suffering is palpable. We owe those who suffered there - the mothers, the babies and their descendants and families - a proper memorial and a duty of preservation. Bessborough should be a site of conscience.”
“Last Thursday's decision granting permission for development to proceed on the site of the former Bessborough mother and baby home is indeed deeply disappointing. It has caused immense distress and concern to survivors and many other people across the country. I have been listening carefully to what the Taoiseach has said but it is extremely distressing for everyone to hear the conditionality attached to the permission that works must stop if human remains are found on the grounds. That alone should be a cause of immense concern to anyone who has read anything of the history of Bessborough. Ten days ago, I visited the site myself. It is in the Taoiseach's own constituency and I know he has been there himself.”
“I thank the Ceann Comhairle for welcoming to the Gallery the relatives of the Peterhead Ten, the last political prisoners released from British prisons after the War of Independence, who are here with Senator Nessa Cosgrove. On Monday, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste met the Irish Thalidomide Association to discuss the long-delayed State apology. The Tánaiste said that this year is the one when we bring some degree of closure to people who have been treated so badly, and indeed thalidomide survivors have been treated so badly by the State. There are just 40 survivors in Ireland and, as I have said before, all this group is asking for is a State apology, recognition, statutory supports and a fair compensation scheme for this small cohort of people. I again ask the Taoiseach for an apology. Justice for thalidomide survivors is long overdue.”
“We need to develop a means of ensuring that it is perpetrators who are removed from their homes, and speedily. However, we also appreciate that in an emergency, victims need support to flee and to escape violence. Freedom from violence should not be a luxury. I thank the Taoiseach for his commitment, in principle, to a safe fund of this nature. The details can certainly be discussed and clarified but the support of Government, in principle, is vital. Can I ask that we might see funds allocated in this year's budget?”
“I thank the Taoiseach for that substantive and positive response. I do appreciate that and I appreciate the Taoiseach's indication he will engage seriously on this issue. Clearly, there is more to be done also on the provision of refuge spaces and on local authority allocation rules. It is regrettable that during yesterday’s debate on the Istanbul Convention, we saw an insufficient number of TDs who were scheduled to speak show up for the debate. The debate collapsed and that is unfortunate in a national emergency. It is an emergency not just in this jurisdiction but across this island. We have seen some shocking figures also in the North, so public representatives need to treat it seriously. Again, I thank the Taoiseach for his engagement. Of course, we all know that women and children should not be forced to flee their homes.”
“If not, could we have a timeline for this necessary change? It would not be hugely costly but it would be something that could have a huge impact on the lives of vulnerable women and children.”
“Just weeks ago, I raised the epidemic of violence against women and girls with the Taoiseach and I did so in the context of a number of policy calls, including establishment of this safe fund. He gave me a welcome reply, saying he would ask the line Ministers to engage with us to explore how to ring-fence funds for this proposal. He said he was open to constructive engagement but we have heard nothing since then and we know budget negotiations are already under way. A safe fund cannot resolve the deeply embedded misogyny that exists in Irish society but if it can save a life or protect one woman, or one child, from the torment of domestic violence, it will be worth doing. Can the Taoiseach confirm whether he plans to bring our proposal to Cabinet? Will we see a safe fund for women in this year’s budget?”
“We must have a concerted strategy to stop perpetrators of this horrific violence and to close the policy gaps into which victims are falling. We cannot continue to tolerate the intolerable. There is much we can do but I want to ask about one policy in particular. Front-line organisations, like Women's Aid, tell us that financial insecurity and the housing crisis are trapping women and children in violent homes. They simply cannot afford to leave and they have nowhere to go. Their abusers know this. Labour has proposed a €3 million safe fund to provide fast financial support for those who need an escape route. Administered by Women’s Aid, it would not be means tested.”
“It has become a cliché to describe violence against women as an epidemic and fatal violence against women as femicide but that is the reality. Women’s Aid tells us that one in three women has experienced domestic violence in some form. Domestic violence is lived, endured and survived by women every day but, tragically, as we see, sometimes women do not survive. Almost 90% of women murdered in Ireland in recent decades were killed by a man who was known to them. Domestic violence kills and study after study shows that the behaviour of coercive control increases the risk of fatal violence. We know the patterns that exist so our national response has to become something more than ritualised shock after the fact.”