On Monday, a man with an axe attacked a woman in Leixlip in her home before setting it on fire. The man, her former partner, was out on bail for previously assaulting her when he broke in and attacked her. She managed to escape and is now being treated for serious injuries in hospital. Yesterday morning, there was another vicious attack. A woman who answered her front door in Dublin was doused in petrol and set alight. She is also now in a critical condition and being treated in hospital. These attacks occurred less than 24 hours apart. Their depravity has shocked the country. Both women were attacked in their own homes, where they should have been safest. They are not the only ones. Every day, all over the country, women endure violence, harassment, assaults and intimidation. Some of them will die because of it. Last week, Stella Gallagher was killed in Cork. At her funeral mass yesterday, her brother-in-law said Ms Gallagher had an inbuilt generosity and was always doing things for others. These are the stories of just three women in the news on the week of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, one of whom is now dead. If I were to attend any court in any part of the country on any day of the week, I would find more brutality and more tragedy for women who should be leading full and happy lives. There are so many women out there who spend every day trying to make themselves small, invisible even, who are desperate not to say the wrong thing in the wrong tone of voice or with the wrong expression, all so they do not set him off, do not make him angry, do not make him upset. These are women who contribute so much to their families, friends and communities and who are routinely and relentlessly terrorised in their own homes. They are women whose lives are being ruined by controlling, abusive and violent men. Violence against women is not a women's problem; violence against women is a men's problem. The common denominator when women are attacked is invariably men. This is an issue that will never be fully addressed until more men join the fight against it and call out and report family, friends, colleagues and strangers who belittle, intimidate or insult women. I raised violence against women here yesterday but I am raising it again today because it is a daily nightmare for tens of thousands of women out there and I was not happy with the answers I received yesterday to my questions. I asked, if this Government really has a zero-tolerance approach to this issue, how does it square that with nine counties not having a refuge space? When will refuge spaces be provided in every county? That is what I asked and I did not get an answer. I also asked if the Government would ensure that women's counselling notes could not be weaponised any more in sexual assault and rape trials. I did not get an answer. Will the Taoiseach answer those questions now?
Sentiment score: -0.38
What the Minister proposes to bring forward in relation to people's counselling notes is basically a new version of the status quo. It is that people's counselling notes can be used against them in court. I feel the need to very clearly break this down. We know that the court process retraumatises victims of sexual assault and rape. We know that the percentage of women who get justice for rape is absolutely minuscule as a result of that because people do not want to go to court. What is another way of looking at that? The percentage of people who are convicted is minuscule. That results in people being quite likely to get away with raping somebody. That is the reality. Why is the process traumatising? Let us look at it. One thing is your counselling notes being used against you in a trial. It is despicable. There is one very clear thing this Government could do to try to help the process, to try to make it less hostile towards victims, and that is an outright ban on people's counselling notes being used in court. Will the Government reconsider this?
Sentiment score: -0.15
It would still be brought into-----
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I did.
Sentiment score: 0.00
But still allowing it in courts.
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This is a part of that.
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