Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Fahey, to the House to discuss this very important issue. It is very often neglected and we do so to our cost. If we choose to neglect the many women — it is mostly women — who suffer from domestic violence, we are doing them a great disservice.

The Minister of State will be aware that the Women's Aid helpline received almost 20,000 calls this year. This is an increase of 5% on the number of calls last year. There was also an increase in the number of calls the organisation missed because it did not have enough personnel to take them. I would welcome any commitment to make available to the organisation the funding necessary to provide an adequate helpline service.

It sends shivers up our spines to think of what it must be like to be in a setting where there is domestic violence. It is usually not just the women who are in such a setting because, in general, children are also present. Surveys show that women admit that children were present during the majority of violent incidents in their homes. This is certainly not good for any child.

There is evidence to prove that a person who has been abused himself or herself as a child, or who has witnessed abuse, may grow up to be an abuser or be abused. It is an issue that affects the entire family and others and, therefore, must be tackled. We have been talking about this subject for many years and I feel we are not making enough progress. The problem will get worse because of our changing society. We now have many foreign nationals living in our country who come from different cultures. It is possible that in the countries from which they come, and certainly some of the eastern European countries, women are not as well respected as they are here. I know dreadful violence is perpetrated against many women in such countries. The people are now living here, some of them living in circumstances where there is domestic violence. When the Minister of State is drawing up a report, he will need to consider the cultural differences and practices of people of other nationalities who are now living in Ireland and make them aware of how we value women and the fact that we will not tolerate domestic violence.

Another issue that arises because of our changing society is the trafficking of women. This practice highlights the plight of another group of people who are being abused. I would like to see this issue addressed in any report the Minister of State produces. Only last week we saw reports in the media on the opening or proposed opening of a lap dancing club by a well-known personality from the United Kingdom. The sex industry culture is coming into the country and this needs to be addressed. The question as to whether this is to be allowed might warrant a Seanad debate for another day. However, strict guidelines should be in place to assure the safety of women participating or working in those premises. These are vulnerable groups coming into Ireland and they need to be dealt with, quite apart from Irish people already living in situations of domestic violence.

People living in these situations put up with matters for some time. They may ring the Women's Aid helpline or seek help in other places. When all else fails and the situation cannot be improved, the last resort is to leave home. That is why we need to have a very good support mechanism in place, namely, refuges throughout the country. It is well known that these excellent facilities cannot cope with the demand. It is sad to reflect that if women have to leave home, in many cases bringing their children with them, they cannot find a place either in a local refuge or one that could be many miles away from home. There is the question, too, of children being taken from their schools and environment, thereby compounding the problems. The lives of the children involved are being upset. It is therefore very important to have refuge accommodation in every county.

I was very disappointed to learn recently that the refuge that was planned for the Dublin 15 area in Blanchardstown is not to go ahead. That is a great mistake, given the area has a population of nearly 100,000. If a refuge is located locally, it means at least that if children are brought along, they can continue to attend their own schools so that their daily routines are not upset too much. More direct action needs to be taken. The Minister of State is dealing with this matter through the voluntary organisations but he cannot wash his hands of it like that. If the voluntary organisations are to do this work, which is the way in which the Government is dealing with the problem, they must be given the necessary funding. It is no use paying lip service to the problem by saying the money has been given to the organisations concerned and they should simply get on with it. The organisations say they do not have enough money and need to be adequately resourced. Otherwise it is a matter of paying lip service and that is not good enough. We also need to ensure that the services being provided are appropriate to all women, whether native Irish or immigrants.

As regards the legal system, fewer than one in ten women victims of sexual violence reports the matter to the Garda. We are really looking at just the tip of the iceberg. Very few women will have the courage to go to the Garda. They see reports in the newspapers about rape cases. The number of rape cases brought to court do not reflect the overall number of such incidents every year. Consider what a woman must go through when she goes to the court, say, in a domestic violence case with all that this entails, whether she has been beaten up, emotionally damaged or, indeed, raped. Very few women are strong enough after such experiences to put themselves through the courts. The courts system needs to be looked at to see if it can be made more user friendly. Women in such situations feel an enormous amount of hostility towards them. It is a matter about which people do not want to talk. Men certainly feel uncomfortable talking about this and the issue tends to get brushed under the carpet. We can no longer do that and must address these issues. Tackling the courts area would do a great favour for many women so that this problem can be properly addressed.

I hope the Minister of State will continue to fund the National Steering Committee on Violence Against Women. This committee certainly does a great deal of good work and needs to be funded. I look forward to the report it is to publish shortly. However, it has taken a long time to get this report and the committee is to present a five-year plan. What have we been doing for all those years? Women have been living in this type of situation for a very long time. Let us get on with it without delay and make it work.

I will finish with a statistic to show how serious is the issue. In 2004 Women's Aid reported that 107 women were murdered since 1996, 69 of them in their own homes. This is the extreme when we talk about murder, but it is happening on an increasing basis. A year later those numbers are higher. Obviously this situation is unacceptable. Women are in danger today and want to see action.