Senator Bacik renews call for Debate on Domestic Violence

Order of Business

Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Senator Ivana Bacik: I am sure all Members will share with me in expressing condolences to the family of the little five year old girl who lost her life so tragically in the house fire in Boyle, County Roscommon. It is an appalling tragedy. I know all Members will want to share in sending condolences to her family.

I renew the calls made for a debate on domestic violence. Calls for such a debate were made to me last week and I said, as Deputy Leader, I would do my best to ensure we would have such a debate at some point this term. I make this request in light of SAFE Ireland's briefing on this issue, the figures for which were published last week, which many colleagues raised on the floor of the House on the Order of Business on subsequent days. At tomorrow's meeting of the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, a further briefing on domestic violence will be made by a number of groups, including Women's Aid and AkiDwA. I would very much like to be able to tell those groups that we will have a debate on this issue in the Seanad at some point in the course of this term. Therefore, I renew the call for such a debate.

I was at the launch earlier day, as were other colleagues, of the Marriage Equality report Missing Pieces in which the organisation campaigning for civil marriage for gay and lesbian people drew a comprehensive and impressive comparison between the rights and responsibilities of civil partnership compared to those relating to civil marriage and drew the conclusion that the civil partnership regime falls short in 169 respects compared to that of marriage. It is a very useful report. I should declare an interest in that I am acting in a case, along with another colleague, in which the issue of same sex marriage is before the Supreme Court. It would useful for us to debate the need to give greater recognition to the legal status of same sex couples in Ireland.