Rose Conway-Walsh: Demands Stronger Sanctions for Domestic Violence
Rose Conway-Walsh spoke in support of a bill introduced by Matt Carthy and Marie McCormack, urging tougher sanctions against perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence. She argued the justice system and courts currently condone gender-based violence and said women and children have a right to feel safe.
Bill support and praise
Rose Conway-Walsh opened by commending her colleagues Matt Carthy and Marie McCormack for bringing the bill forward and thanked the women in the gallery for their work and presence. She said the bill is critically important and will help deliver the change needed when people stand together.
Concerns about the justice system and courts
She told the minister she has confidence that changes are possible, but warned that domestic and sexual violence is not being treated as a crime with zero tolerance. Conway-Walsh described courtroom decisions that fail to grasp the dynamics of domestic abuse and criticised excuses made for perpetrators, such as community standing or club membership.
Call for tougher sanctions on perpetrators
Conway-Walsh argued perpetrators choose their actions and will continue unless sanctions reflect the gravity of their crimes and the destruction caused to women and children. She said lenient sentences and low compliance with sanctions mean the justice system has the capacity to make perpetrators stop if penalties are severe enough.
Services, refuges and next steps
She stressed that more services and resources are desperately needed, noting too many counties lack a refuge. While emphasising the need for services, she insisted perpetrators must be stopped through stronger sanctions and systemic change to create communities free of gender-based violence.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
I want to commend my colleague Matt Carthy and Marie McCormack for bringing this bill forward. It is critically important and above all I want to welcome the women in the gallery and thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you do and all that you continue to do. I want you to know that it really matters and that it will bring about the change that we need to make when we stand together. Because the fact is Minister, and I do think that you know this, and we have confidence, we have faith in you that you are going to make the changes that are needed here, that we are not coming back year after year doing the same thing over and over again. Because you will know Minister that the truth is that domestic and sexual violence is not treated as a crime, it is not treated as a crime and there is not zero tolerance, because if there were we would not be standing here again. You also know that women and children have a right to feel safe and that is the bottom line. They have a right to feel safe. This bill will obviously help that in the situation where you have perpetrators that more often than not aren't obligated to fulfil even the lenient sentences that they get. Because we operate in systems, and again you will know this, that condone domestic and sexual violence. And I see it all of the time in courts. I see where decisions are made, where it is quite obvious that those who are making the decisions do not understand the dynamics of domestic violence. And they do not understand the minds of the abusers that are in front of them. And if I see another letter come before a court that says he was a member of the GAA club, he was a member of this, he is an outstanding citizen, and all of these excuses that are made. When domestic violence and sexual violence, when that crime is committed, it is committed by the perpetrator knowing what they are doing. They make that choice. They choose to do this. And they will continue to do it until the sanctions reflect the gravity of what they do, the destruction of the lives of women and children. And it has to stop, and it has to stop now. The cost of gender-based violence to lives, to individual lives, to families, to communities, is just too high. And it continues decade after decade, and year after year. It is time to shout stop. But it must, and obviously we need more services, we need resources, we need all of that desperately bad. There are too many counties that don't even have a refuge within the counties. But we need the perpetrators to stop, and they will only stop if we make them stop. And it was within the will of the justice system here to make them stop if the sanctions are severe enough. We have to create communities that are free of the crime of domestic and sexual violence, of gender-based violence. Goera Maga. Deputy Bennett.
Thank you for downloading 🙏
If you publish this material on social media, we would be very grateful if you tagged VideoParliament. It helps us reach more people and keep building a transparent archive of Irish politics.
