These are the words of a remarkably strong words of a teenager from west Cork after her rapist was jailed yesterday for six years: I could see my house just before he dragged me down the shortcut and started doing unimaginable things to me ... It made me feel so defeated - if it can happen so close to home it can happen anywhere. Aged just 17 when she was attacked as she walked a short distance home, she told the court yesterday that she thought she was going to die. She spoke out because she wanted other victims of sexual violence to know that they are not alone. I want to commend on her incredible bravery.

Sentiment score: -0.40

This case highlights yet again why women rarely feel safe when they are out at night and why we do not jog or run when it gets dark, why we tightly grip keys when we walk, why we rarely wear headphones so we can be alert to sounds around us and why we are hyper vigilant about men walking behind us when we are alone. It is because nowhere is safe. Violence against women is an epidemic in our society. Every day in court and crime reports we read of horrific cases involving women who have been beaten, sexually assaulted, raped or murdered. We know some of their names, the hugely courageous women who have spoken out like Bláthnaid Raleigh and Natasha O'Brien. Too often, in the absence of high-profile cases, there is a lack of political focus on this issue. The grim reality is the 52% of women in Ireland have experienced sexual violence. That is more than 1 million people. That is probably an under-reporting. What is being done about it? It seems like pervasive levels of violence against women are something we are somehow just supposed to accept and tolerate as the price of being a woman. The Government has done some work in this area and I welcome the new agency Cuan that has been set up to tackle gender-based violence but why has progress on the basics been so slow? How are there still nine counties in Ireland without a women's refuge? How are women's counselling notes still at risk of being used in trials for rape and sexual assault? How is there still uncertainty about whether offences like stalking and coercive control can be included in a planned domestic violence register? How is toxic and abusive content aimed at demeaning, threatening and humiliating women allowed to proliferate online? I could go on and on but I am running out of time. We need an emergency response. We need this to be treated like the epidemic that it is. Today is international day for the elimination of violence against women. Will the Government ban the use of counselling notes from courtrooms? When will refuge spaces be provided in every county?

Sentiment score: -0.26

I acknowledged that some work has been done in this area. However, when the Minister says the Government will continue its approach of zero tolerance, it is important to highlight that it needs to get real on this issue. He is talking about zero tolerance. Let us compare that with the fact nine counties are without a refuge space. The reality for women in violent homes in those counties is they have nowhere to go and are forced to stay in unsafe homes. There is nothing about this that speaks zero tolerance. We are talking about situations where women's counselling notes are allowed to be used against them in court in cases of rape and sexual assault. Nothing about that spells zero tolerance to people watching today. As I said, we welcome some of the moves that have been made on this issue by this Government and the previous one, but it is time to get real and get to grips with the reality of gender-based violence in this country. I asked the Minister two questions and I will ask them again. When will the Government ban the use of counselling notes in court and when will those nine counties have a domestic violence refuge space?

Sentiment score: -0.15