Yesterday saw the end of a court process and the sentencing of two teenage boys for the horrific murder of a young girl in the prime of her life. It was probably the most extreme example of sexual assault and misogyny the country has seen. We send solidarity to her family.

Last month, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre stated there was a public health epidemic of sexual violence. This time last year, thousands of people shared pictures online of their underwear with the hashtag, #thisisnotconsent, in response to victim blaming in rape trials. Ireland trended worldwide at the time and we had to bring the issue graphically into the Dáil chamber. One year on, I ask the Taoiseach what his Government has actually done about gender-based violence. Barristers are still trotting out the same old rape myths. In a recent trial, where it was not even contested that the complainant had been savagely beaten, the barrister suggested that the woman had still consented to the sex. The barrister said: "she is a worldly young girl [she is aged 20, by the way] with experience of life ... she knew what she was doing."

Women are wondering why we bothered putting a definition of "consent" into the law because it is not worth the paper it is written on. In another court this week, a complainant who was allegedly raped by two men was told by a barrister that she consented as she was not drunk enough and had the presence of mind to fix her skirt. Being beaten, raped multiple times and having video evidence does not seem to be enough to be believed. Is it any wonder there are reports of famous sports celebrities strutting around with impunity despite sexual assault allegations being made against them? Are women to go into hiding every time such a figure decides to go on a night out?

Following protests after the rape trial in Belfast, the Taoiseach commissioned the O'Malley report. It was to report by the end of last year but here we are approaching the end of 2019. The Taoiseach is already aware of the figures so I will not repeat all of them. I will say, however, that ten women are murdered annually, one in three women experience coercive control and one in four women has experienced physical or sexual violence. One must judge how important a Government considers an issue by how much funding it gives. The Taoiseach's Government gave €25 million to the entire support sector but saw fit to give €17 million to the cruel and ailing greyhound industry.

On that-----

Perhaps the Deputy thinks that is fine, but most of us do not.

As a result of #MeToo and more disclosure, the rape crisis centres are reporting a massive increase in calls. The increase in funding provided by the Government goes nowhere near to meeting the demand. Why are groups not going into schools to educate young people about the signs of abusive relationships? Instead we have a culture of Hollywood movies and so on that normalises toxic behaviour by calling jealousy and manipulation "romance". I put it to the Taoiseach that we have to conclude that unless people go out to protest and stage walkouts in Google, McDonalds or wherever else, nothing seems to happen in here on these issues.

I thank the Deputy.

Over the past year, the Government has failed abysmally on three counts, namely, how complainants are treated in court; funding; and education.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. I offer my condolences and my heart goes out to the parents of Ana Kriegel. I saw them speaking yesterday and I cannot imagine what they are going through and will go through for the rest of their lives because of what happened to their beautiful daughter.

There is an epidemic of gender-based violence in Ireland and across the world, and it needs to stop. The Deputy asked what the Government is doing about it. We are doing quite a lot. We have finally ratified the Istanbul Convention. That was long overdue but it has been done by this Government of Fine Gael and Independents, whereas it was not done by many other Governments that could have done so in the past. We have modernised our laws around sexual offences. These laws have been strengthened in recent years through the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Acts and the Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Act, which makes coercive control an offence. We have changed our laws around consent and have strengthened them in a way that needed to be done. There is also improved recording of sexual assault and work is ongoing with the Office of the Attorney General around the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill. Next, we will introduce a distinct offence of stalking to provide for two offences to deal with non-consensual recording and distribution of intimate images. The Labour Party has been very involved in working with us on that. We need to ensure that proposed image-based offences will cover the recording and distribution of sexual assaults. The Oireachtas joint committee report will be considered in full once the committee has completed it.

An Garda Síochána is also continually improving its specialist services responding to the needs of victims. The Garda Commissioner is now rolling out digital protective service units with specially trained officers to engage with and interview victims. These personnel are better trained and know how to deal with victims of sexual violence. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, has also launched the No Excuses campaign, a three-year national awareness raising campaign on sexual harassment and sexual violence that was launched in May 2019. The campaign aims to increase awareness of sexual violence and bring about changes in societal attitudes such as those the Deputy spoke about, with the aim of decreasing and preventing these offences. I am pleased to say that a second burst of the campaign commenced on 2 October.

With regard to funding, Tusla has statutory responsibility for care and protection from domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. The budget for that has increased by 20% under this Government and stands at €25.3 million. In addition, a further €1.7 million is being made available by the Department of Justice and Equality to support 57 organisations which support victim support services, and a further €2 million has been allocated in the budget for 2020 to assist those services next year.

The Taoiseach can sign up to conventions and put laws on the Statute Book. These are important and relatively easy things to do but they need to be backed up by change. We can see from reading the court reports that the definition of consent, which I argued for when I spoke at the committee, does not seem to be having one jot of an impact.

I welcome the No Excuses campaign. The difficulty, however, is that while it encourages more people to disclose, will they get the help they need? The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has said it has had a 25% increase in phone calls as a result of #MeToo and a more disclosing culture. The Government increased funding to the sector by 10% across the board, even though some areas needed more while others may have needed less.

Last year, 3,000 people became millionaires in this country and 3,000 children got help from a domestic violence service. There are also more than 3,000 children who are homeless. The idea that we do not have the money to support services to assist women, men and children who experience violence is simply not acceptable. Women's Aid published a report in the past month which included a finding from a survey that people believed there was no point in taking a case and the majority of respondents said they probably would not bother doing so again.

The Deputy's time is up.

What the Government is doing in this regard is completely insufficient. International protests are taking place on 25 November, the international day for the elimination of violence against women. This should signal to the trade union movement, community organisations and women's organisations that they should mobilise for massive protest on that day worldwide.

The Deputy's time is up.

The political establishment is not taking any notice.

Spending by the Government is increasing by roughly 4% per year. It is only in the last year or two that we have gone from deficit to surplus and we are taking in as much in revenue as we spend. Government spending is increasing by about 4% a year. As the Deputy pointed out, we increased the budget in this area by 10%, which is a recognition of the priority we place on this issue. The fact is that we are willing to increase resources for this area at twice the rate we are increasing funding for other areas, some of which have had funding frozen or reduced. The Deputy mentioned some of those areas earlier.

In terms of what we are doing on the issue, we are reforming the law and I have given some examples of that. We are also investing in education and public awareness campaigns and the Deputy acknowledged that this has led to an increase in the number of women and men coming forward, which is to be welcomed. We are also improving our data in this area, which is very important too.

I am aware that the Deputy has campaigned successfully for us to go ahead with a new study on sexual violence in Ireland, which is being done. We are also providing additional resources and training to gardaí, as I mentioned earlier.