My deepest sympathies are with the family of Jamey Carney, the Killarney-based women into whose death local gardaí are preparing to open a murder investigation. We note that a man has been charged with the murder of Adina Raluca Constantin who died after an assault in Laois on Saturday. Our thoughts are with their families, friends and communities as they reel from that brutal and tragic news. As of yesterday, the number of women killed violently in Ireland this year has overtaken the figure for the whole of 2025 in just seven months. Rich, full lives have been extinguished. Families have been deprived of mothers, sisters and daughters. Communities have been deprived of family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. 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. 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. 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? 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.

Sentiment score: -0.24

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. 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?

Sentiment score: 0.17

Yes.

Sentiment score: 0.40