These are the words of a remarkably strong words of a teenager from west Cork after her rapist was jailed yesterday for six years:

I could see my house just before he dragged me down the shortcut and started doing unimaginable things to me ... It made me feel so defeated - if it can happen so close to home it can happen anywhere.

Aged just 17 when she was attacked as she walked a short distance home, she told the court yesterday that she thought she was going to die. She spoke out because she wanted other victims of sexual violence to know that they are not alone. I want to commend on her incredible bravery.

Hear, hear.

This case highlights yet again why women rarely feel safe when they are out at night and why we do not jog or run when it gets dark, why we tightly grip keys when we walk, why we rarely wear headphones so we can be alert to sounds around us and why we are hyper vigilant about men walking behind us when we are alone. It is because nowhere is safe.

Violence against women is an epidemic in our society. Every day in court and crime reports we read of horrific cases involving women who have been beaten, sexually assaulted, raped or murdered. We know some of their names, the hugely courageous women who have spoken out like Bláthnaid Raleigh and Natasha O'Brien. Too often, in the absence of high-profile cases, there is a lack of political focus on this issue. The grim reality is the 52% of women in Ireland have experienced sexual violence. That is more than 1 million people. That is probably an under-reporting. What is being done about it?

It seems like pervasive levels of violence against women are something we are somehow just supposed to accept and tolerate as the price of being a woman. The Government has done some work in this area and I welcome the new agency Cuan that has been set up to tackle gender-based violence but why has progress on the basics been so slow? How are there still nine counties in Ireland without a women's refuge? How are women's counselling notes still at risk of being used in trials for rape and sexual assault? How is there still uncertainty about whether offences like stalking and coercive control can be included in a planned domestic violence register? How is toxic and abusive content aimed at demeaning, threatening and humiliating women allowed to proliferate online? I could go on and on but I am running out of time.

We need an emergency response. We need this to be treated like the epidemic that it is. Today is international day for the elimination of violence against women. Will the Government ban the use of counselling notes from courtrooms? When will refuge spaces be provided in every county?

I thank Deputy Cairns for raising this very serious and important matter. I read the transcripts of the court case and it is absolutely horrific. I want to commend the bravery of that young lady. I have a 17-year-old daughter. I cannot imagine what she and her family are going through.

There should be no tolerance of violence against women, and there is no tolerance of it. That is why the Government's strategy of zero tolerance is so critical. The Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, has been advancing some very specific measures in that regard. Jennie's law and Valerie's law are advancing, too. The establishment of Cuan by the previous Government was absolutely critical. As a former housing Minister, I was involved in the third national strategy. We need to make sure the supports are there for people.

Fundamentally, and I agree with the Deputy on this, the fact that many women, and young ladies as well, do not feel safe at night and have to change their behaviour and habits insofar as where they go, where they run and whether they use head phones, is not what we want our country to be. Unfortunately, this is not unique to Ireland. We have a responsibility, as a collective here in the Oireachtas, to work together on this very serious issue, and to work societally as well. Significant education is required. The Deputy mentioned online content and she is right. The normalisation of pornography among young men, in particular, is a really worrying trend. This is something that can be addressed through our education system and schools and through our families as well. Parents and guardians have to be very open about having these discussions at a very young age. I speak in this regard from experience of being a dad. We need to have those types of discussions.

It is important that the Government underpins the measures we have with funding. We have increased funding to almost €80 million in budget 2026. That is to support Cuan and the services working to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. The establishment of a specific agency to deal with this was critically important. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, is also looking to introduce legislative change, including, under the proposed guardianship of infants (amendment) Bill, to allow for the removal of guardianship rights from persons convicted of killing their intimate partner. The Minister also secured Government approval on 22 October to progress the criminal law (sexual offences, domestic violence and international instruments) Bill 2025, which includes measures to allow perpetrators of domestic violence to be included on a new register to be run by the courts and to strengthen the law around sexual consent. Convictions will be published online by the Courts Service under a specific heading of "domestic violence registered judgments".

I am acutely aware, as is the Government, that we need to continue the focus on this area and that there must be a zero-tolerance approach to violence against women.

I acknowledged that some work has been done in this area. However, when the Minister says the Government will continue its approach of zero tolerance, it is important to highlight that it needs to get real on this issue. He is talking about zero tolerance. Let us compare that with the fact nine counties are without a refuge space. The reality for women in violent homes in those counties is they have nowhere to go and are forced to stay in unsafe homes. There is nothing about this that speaks zero tolerance. We are talking about situations where women's counselling notes are allowed to be used against them in court in cases of rape and sexual assault. Nothing about that spells zero tolerance to people watching today.

As I said, we welcome some of the moves that have been made on this issue by this Government and the previous one, but it is time to get real and get to grips with the reality of gender-based violence in this country. I asked the Minister two questions and I will ask them again. When will the Government ban the use of counselling notes in court and when will those nine counties have a domestic violence refuge space?

On the counselling notes, the Minister will bring forward amending legislation towards the end of this year or very early next year. That will be brought forward. I outlined in my first answer to the Deputy the other measures we are taking by way of legislation. As she raised, it is critically important that there be safe places for victims to go. The Government and I agree with her that more needs to be done there. However, the plan is for 52 new family refuge units, 45 new safe homes and 50 new units to be under construction, all by the end of next year. I have visited the new refuge in Wexford, which is excellent. Work is advancing on projects in the nine counties she mentioned, one of them in north County Dublin. I am very aware of what is happening there in relation to new refuge spaces.

This is something we have to continue to work on. I just want to assure the Deputy it is an absolute priority for both the Minister for justice and the Government.