Today is the International Day of the Girl Child. I call for a debate with the Minister for Justice on the need to increase efforts to detect, prosecute and eliminate the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation, FGM, in Ireland. FGM is a transnational public health, human rights and gender injustice issue that more than 125 million girls and women in 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East have been subjected to. This House and the Lower House acted in recognition of this in 2012, when they passed the Criminal Justice (Female Genital Mutilation) Act 2012, creating a specific offence to prosecute those who carry out these horrific practices, yet, while the Act has been in place for more than a decade, only one single joint conviction has been made under it. I am sure we all remember the trial in January 2020 when the father and mother of a toddler were sentenced to five and a half years and four years and nine months, respectively, in prison. As it happens, that verdict was overturned a year later on appeal, although I understand the State indicated that it would request a retrial. There are zero standing convictions for this crime in the entire country in more than a decade. We would be fools to think instances of FGM in Ireland are zero. The HSE female genital mutilation handbook information for healthcare professionals working in Ireland, updated in 2021, stated that:

The number of FGM cases in Ireland continues to increase. In 2016, it was estimated that nearly 6,000 women living in Ireland had undergone the practice of female genital mutilation.

As the number of people in Ireland from east Africa and the Middle East increases, the risks of an increase in the prevalence of FGM in Ireland also rises. I read this morning in The Guardian that the political and religious leaders in The Gambia are threatening to introduce a Bill to decriminalise FGM eight years after the practice was outlawed. Members of the country's national assembly have blocked a proposal for the 2015 law to be scrapped while The Gambia Supreme Islamic Council issued a fatwa condemning anyone who denounces the practice and called for the government to reconsider the legislation.

I will make another comment on the barricade yesterday. We pride ourselves on our democracy and always being available to the public. I feel some people in here feel they are too precious to deal with those with whom they do not agree. I do not agree with any violence on any person in public office. These barricades send out a signal of exclusion; a literal divide between the politicians and the people who they are elected into these Houses to serve. The Government encourages protest at our Parliament and says that this the place to protest. From yesterday's blockade, however, it is clearly telling its citizens, "Do not bother, you are not welcome here." Yesterday was overkill as far as I am concerned. I just want to bring that point to the Leader's attention.

On that point, as a member of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, Cathaoirleach of the House and somebody who asked for measures to be taken following the event recently, I support the Senator's call for the right to protest. However, the barricades yesterday were not to preclude or exclude, but to protect members of staff, Members of the Houses and the democratic institution that is the Houses of the Oireachtas. The Senator is quite free to talk to me at any stage about it, but it was not to exclude anybody. As a member of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission who proposed that action be taken following the events of a number of weeks ago, I will stand up for the democratic process that is the Houses of the Oireachtas. It was not to exclude anybody, however, just so the Senator is aware. I am very happy to have a conversation and talk to her about. I just want her to know that.

I call Senator Maria Byrne.