Gino Kenny on Sexual Violence Bill: Concerns on Tagging, Rehab
Gino Kenny spoke about proposed sexual crimes legislation, condemning sexual violence and warning that gender-based violence and toxic misogyny are on the rise. He supported rehabilitation and consent training while raising serious concerns about electronic tagging and the need for investment in domestic violence services.
Main message
He described sexual violence as "utterly hideous," stressed the incalculable, lifelong effect on victims, and called gender-based violence and toxic misogyny reprehensible.
Concerns about electronic tagging
He said he had serious concerns about electronic tagging, arguing there is little evidence it prevents reoffending or addresses underlying causes.
Support for rehabilitation and services
He emphasised rehabilitation as important, questioned whether abusers are "born to do that," and urged investment in services for women presenting with domestic violence and abuse.
Consent training and cultural causes
He linked sexual crimes to a sexualised popular culture, urged consent training citing the Me Too movement, and referenced the "women of honour" disclosures in the defence forces as evidence of toxic behaviour.
Pandemic impact and family harm
He noted the pandemic has worsened domestic violence over the last 19 months, increasing bullying, intimidation and harm to women and their children, and called for greater provision and protective responses.
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.
Minister, I think this is a very profound and very complex piece of legislation and a very important subject in relation to sexual crimes and I want to first start to say that sexual violence of any kind is utterly hideous and gender-based violence and toxic misogyny are reprehensible in any form and they exist and they manifest and unfortunately they are on the rise in society. And the profound effect on the victim is incalculable. Anybody that has been gone through that process of being sexually abused or sexual violence committed against them, that effect stays with them for the rest of their lives and it will have a profound effect even after when they have children and so forth. Minister, I want to kind of just look at a different aspect in relation to societal issues around sexual violence and the sexualised nature of our society and it's not kind of, I wouldn't be kind of radical to say that, you know, there's elements of popular culture that's absolutely insidious the way it is portrayed in relation to sexualisation of women. It's pretty horrible how, you know, culture and some cultures in relation to public culture can be that kind of insidious and I think there's an element of that that's the root cause of sexual crimes and gender-based violence. And even in domestic violence, we've seen over the last 19 months because of the pandemic, the profound effect in relation to the situation environment where a woman is subjected to absolutely horrible amount of bullying, intimidation and harassment. And obviously that has a terrible effect on siblings and children of that person. So it's pretty, pretty, pretty horrible situation. Just part of the bill, Minister, I would have serious concerns about electronic tagging. I think there's probably no evidence that that tears the individual from, you know, doing other things. And I think there's not that much evidence in relation to that. In relation to investing in kind of, in relation to domestic violence, you know, where, you know, people present themselves, women present themselves, I think there's definitely an argument that there needs to be more provision in relation to that. And that has to be kind of invested in where women present themselves in that situation. Rehabilitation, I think it's a, it's a very important thing. As I said, some of the people that have been incarcerated in relationships have done absolutely the most dreadful crimes, the most dreadful crimes. But did they actually, where are they born? Like, where are they kind of, did they, well, how was that the scenario, you know, where is that nurture or nature? Or was that societal, you know? And I think, you know, was that person born to do that? I don't think so. I think there is definitely room and an opening for rehabilitation and to prevent a person ever actually get that stage. So that's very, very important. There's also training around consent, which is kind of, we've, you know, we have seen this with the Me Too movement. I think it's a very, very important movement where women have come out saying, look, they're, they've been subjected to kind of quite subtle and kind of very kind of, how to say, very forceful kind of violence and sexual kind of approachments in their workplace. And that's very, very important. And that's very, very important. We've even seen through the kind of, the women of honour movement in, in the defence forces, women coming out, I mean, they had come out and, you know, had said this, they were subjected to this kind of pretty horrible behaviour, horrible behaviour. And it's quite absolutely toxic, literally toxic. And this has, as I said, a terrible effect on those that have, are subjected to this. So, Minister, I do, I understand this is a very, the most serious of, of issues, but I think I do have serious issues around certain parts of the bill. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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.
