As Lá Fhéile Bríde is being recognised for the first time by the State today and with the bank holiday next weekend, I can think of no better day to amplify the urgency for action on violence against women and girls. Unfortunately, this is a pandemic of violence and last year was one of the worst years we have seen for the numbers of people affected. Some 15 women were killed nationally and the vast majority of them, about 87% it is estimated, will have known their killers, either through being a partner, a former partner or a family member. They are not refugees or unvetted men; they are people known to those whom they kill. We still have nine counties without a single refuge space and we still have less than one third of what the Istanbul Convention tells us is required for refuge spaces. We still need reform of the family courts and we still have an inadequate sex and consent training education service for national schools. We need to deal with all of these issues urgently. They cannot wait until laws are passed and the strategy is rolled out. There are things that can be done now and in particular we should provide those extra refuge spaces.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. We are experiencing an epidemic of domestic violence and violence against women in particular. We have a zero tolerance strategy in place to make improvements and change things in this area. I do not want to go into all the details of it here because there is too much to go through but on the particular issue of the number of refuge spaces, we have a plan to double the number up to 280, and that plan is being implemented.