New laws that will make stalking and non-fatal strangulation stand alone offences will be introduced in the coming weeks, the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said.
Ms McEntee said violence against women and girls remains the biggest challenge when it comes to equality and that it was “a sad reality”.
The minister was addressing the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin on Thursday on combating domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.
Ms McEntee said one in three women in Europe experience some form of physical or sexual violence during their lifetime while one in 20 women have been raped.
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She said two in five women have experienced some form of psychological abuse, be it from a current or former partner, and that the problem was “commonplace right across all of our society”.
“I think particularly with Covid-19, it’s come to the fore and also exacerbated the problem. While many of us were safe in our homes, for other people it was actually a terrifying place to be and only made the situation worse,” she said.
The Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022 is due before the Oireachtas in the coming weeks which includes a doubling of the maximum sentence for assault causing harm, the introduction of a dedicated stalking offence and specific offence of “non-fatal strangulation”.
Ms McEntee said a recent report from An Garda Síochána showed that domestic abuse was a factor in the majority of murders and manslaughters last year.
“In fact, for the first time there were more murders in a domestic place than there were gangland or other types of murders,” she said.
“While these are stark and disturbing figures, they’re not really surprising. We’ve always known for example that domestic abuse is something that primarily affects women. It’s not always the case, but it is in the vast majority of cases and the offender is male in the majority of cases where the victim is female.”
The minister said domestic violence has always been a problem and that attitudes had to be changed “above all”, as well as laws, structures, resources and support.
“We need to change attitudes in our own homes and workplaces and WhatsApp groups, online and all of the ways this can culminate to make sure that these are addressed at a local level, at a national level and obviously at a European and international level,” she said.
Ms McEntee said the Government’s zero-tolerance strategy, launched earlier this year, aims to double the available refuge spaces across the country as well as teach children in an “age-appropriate” way from an early age about respect and what healthy relationships are.
“The idea that children are shielded from this is simply nonsense, we have to acknowledge that and work and engage with children,” Ms McEntee said.
She said the strategy also includes supporting victims when they come forward and to provide effective training for gardaí, the courts system, and the health service staff who engage with victims.
