As many Members will know, today marks the last day of the 16 days of activism campaign against gender-based violence. This campaign will end until next year, but we cannot allow ourselves to take our eyes off this issue for another year. Gender-based violence is a human rights crisis and a major public health concern globally. It is particularly high in places where there is conflict, war, severe instability and poverty. More than one-in-three women or girls experience gender-based violence globally. That is the risk. Across the world, 137 women are killed every day by an intimate partner or family member, which is an incredibly horrifying figure.

Women are exhausted from living with the constant, quiet calculation of risk, exhausted from the weight of stories shared in whispers, and exhausted because the threat is very real because it has happened to us or to someone we love. In Ireland, over one third of women have experienced intimate partner abuse and 90% of women who have died violently in Ireland have been killed by a man known to them. In addition to that, women face structural violence. When the Government fails to provide safe housing, adequate income supports, accessible healthcare and culturally appropriate services, it creates the very conditions in which violence against women and girls can take root. Poverty, poor health provision and the absence of timely services place enormous strains on families, fuelling conflict and leaving women and girls more exposed to harm.

Of course, none of this is an excuse for any individual's abusive behaviour, but it shines a light on how State inaction embeds inequality and increases risk. If we are serious about preventing violence, the Government needs to step up and take responsibility to deliver housing, healthcare and other supports that allow every woman and girl in Ireland to live safely and with dignity. We also need to look explicitly at the prevention angle when it comes to things like online safety and education in schools around consent. Prevention is such a key pillar to tackling gender-based violence. We always find ourselves responding to gender-based violence and not thinking about how we can prevent it through early-age education.

The end of this 16-day campaign should not be a quiet day of reflection; it should be a time of mobilisation and a day to shine a light so bright that no online threat, closed door or conflict zone can hide that violence in the shadows. Women refuse to be numbered and silenced, and refuse to accept this violence as inevitable. I am calling for us to have an holistic debate in this Chamber on tackling gender-based violence that looks at the whole cycle: prevention, mitigation and protection across all of the different service providers, including the issues of refuges, long-term housing solutions, education and health supports. Sadly, I think we are seeing a rise in gender-based and domestic-based violence across the island. It should be the opposite. I hope that before the next 16-day campaign, we can, as a collective group, strategise on ways to address this issue.