My deepest sympathies are with the family of Jamey Carney, the Killarney-based women into whose death local gardaí are preparing to open a murder investigation. We note that a man has been charged with the murder of Adina Raluca Constantin who died after an assault in Laois on Saturday. Our thoughts are with their families, friends and communities as they reel from that brutal and tragic news.

As of yesterday, the number of women killed violently in Ireland this year has overtaken the figure for the whole of 2025 in just seven months. Rich, full lives have been extinguished. Families have been deprived of mothers, sisters and daughters. Communities have been deprived of family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. It has become a cliché to describe violence against women as an epidemic and fatal violence against women as femicide but that is the reality.

Women’s Aid tells us that one in three women has experienced domestic violence in some form. Domestic violence is lived, endured and survived by women every day but, tragically, as we see, sometimes women do not survive. Almost 90% of women murdered in Ireland in recent decades were killed by a man who was known to them. Domestic violence kills and study after study shows that the behaviour of coercive control increases the risk of fatal violence.

We know the patterns that exist so our national response has to become something more than ritualised shock after the fact. We must have a concerted strategy to stop perpetrators of this horrific violence and to close the policy gaps into which victims are falling. We cannot continue to tolerate the intolerable.

There is much we can do but I want to ask about one policy in particular. Front-line organisations, like Women's Aid, tell us that financial insecurity and the housing crisis are trapping women and children in violent homes. They simply cannot afford to leave and they have nowhere to go. Their abusers know this. Labour has proposed a €3 million safe fund to provide fast financial support for those who need an escape route. Administered by Women’s Aid, it would not be means tested.

Just weeks ago, I raised the epidemic of violence against women and girls with the Taoiseach and I did so in the context of a number of policy calls, including establishment of this safe fund. He gave me a welcome reply, saying he would ask the line Ministers to engage with us to explore how to ring-fence funds for this proposal. He said he was open to constructive engagement but we have heard nothing since then and we know budget negotiations are already under way. A safe fund cannot resolve the deeply embedded misogyny that exists in Irish society but if it can save a life or protect one woman, or one child, from the torment of domestic violence, it will be worth doing.

Can the Taoiseach confirm whether he plans to bring our proposal to Cabinet? Will we see a safe fund for women in this year’s budget? If not, could we have a timeline for this necessary change? It would not be hugely costly but it would be something that could have a huge impact on the lives of vulnerable women and children.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The loss of life and the murder and killing of women is shocking. As the Deputy said, a large percentage of women are killed by people known to them. The horrific killings of Jamey Carney and of Adina Raluca Constantin in Portlaoise are quite shocking and the numbers are not going in the right direction in terms of the continued extreme violence that is occurring.

There is a societal response required, more generally. Obviously, there will be investigations in respect of the most recent killings and those who committed these crimes need to be brought to justice. More broadly speaking, we are supportive of any measure that would help women who are victims of continuing domestic violence. There does need to be a far greater degree of flexibility in housing policy, for example. The Minister for housing has, since the Deputy last raised this issue, updated Cabinet in respect of measures to transfer time in social housing between local authorities to facilitate women to leave where they are and to go another location but also to develop protocols with local authorities in respect of how women in circumstances of domestic violence can avail of housing, the provision of safe houses and, of course, additional refuge spaces. Cuan, the new agency the Government established for domestic violence, is leading that.

I will speak to the Ministers concerned in terms of the Deputy's proposal around the safe fund; it is not a huge amount of money. We would have to engage with the organisation in terms of the specifics of that. We want to make sure there is a programme of additional refuge places and safe houses. Also, in every local authority allocation, there should be a reserve held to facilitate women fleeing domestic violence. I will ask the Ministers for housing and justice again to talk to the Deputy in respect of the specifics of what she has put forward. I favour as broad a degree of flexibility as possible to facilitate women who are under the constant threat of either coercive control or violence in any shape or form that might take. We have to provide opportunities for people to flee that violence, to leave it behind them and to take that decisive step. I will leave it at that for the time being.

I thank the Taoiseach for that substantive and positive response. I do appreciate that and I appreciate the Taoiseach's indication he will engage seriously on this issue. Clearly, there is more to be done also on the provision of refuge spaces and on local authority allocation rules.

It is regrettable that during yesterday’s debate on the Istanbul Convention, we saw an insufficient number of TDs who were scheduled to speak show up for the debate. The debate collapsed and that is unfortunate in a national emergency. It is an emergency not just in this jurisdiction but across this island. We have seen some shocking figures also in the North, so public representatives need to treat it seriously. Again, I thank the Taoiseach for his engagement.

Of course, we all know that women and children should not be forced to flee their homes. We need to develop a means of ensuring that it is perpetrators who are removed from their homes, and speedily. However, we also appreciate that in an emergency, victims need support to flee and to escape violence. Freedom from violence should not be a luxury.

I thank the Taoiseach for his commitment, in principle, to a safe fund of this nature. The details can certainly be discussed and clarified but the support of Government, in principle, is vital. Can I ask that we might see funds allocated in this year's budget?

Again, I thank the Deputy for raising this. I should have referenced that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Dara Calleary, has announced the introduction of domestic violence travel supplement. The Deputy is probably aware of that.

Yes.

It was announced since the last time the Deputy raised this. That is an important additional measure. Broadly speaking, we have a significant issue more generally in terms of the level and scale of violence and attitudes. In particular, and separate from the murders that occurred, access to violent pornography, for example, by young males is an issue as well, which could be creating an environment that is leading to the kind of shocking levels of violence perpetrated against women. We need to look at this more broadly, which we are doing, but we have to continue to look at what is the most effective way to change the societal context of all of this.