Public and political response need to end violence against women, says Safe Ireland CEO

There needs to be a public and political response to the “ever-increasing” rates of violence against women, the CEO of Safe Ireland has said.

Mary McDermott said that everyone involved with the NGO working to end violence against children and women is “deeply saddened” by Ashling Murphy's tragic death on Wednesday and extended their heartfelt condolences to her family and to the wider community in the Tullamore region.

Ms McDermott also called for “an immediate public and political response to the ever-increasing rates of violence against women”.

“Ashling Murphy’s death is yet another horrific manifestation of the growing epidemic of violence against women in Ireland, in both the private and the public domain.  This young woman was going about her legitimate routine daily business with every reason to expect that she would arrive home safely. There are no circumstances in which the deflection tactics of blame and personal responsibility can be used to justify the continued harbouring of misogyny, violence and femicide in our communities. It is incumbent on all of us to be outraged at the escalating social and cultural assault on women’s safety; the paralysis of communities to be able to respond, and the resistance of political actors to confront and resource the elimination of violence against women,” Ms McDermott said.

Safe Ireland also reiterated its call on the government to commit to “radical structural reform” in the implementation of the 3rd National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence (DSGBV), which is scheduled for publication later this year.

“We are calling for a single ministry with sole responsibility for DSGBV, which follows best practice in other jurisdictions where significant progress is being made in both the prevention and mitigation of violence against women”.