Justice Minister Helen McEntee has been very vocal about her commitment to protecting women and girls from violent crime in her rhetoric.
The Minister herself has acknowledged that issues of women’s safety urgently need to be addressed in Ireland. Earlier this year she conceded that the criminal justice system is not a “welcoming” place for victims of domestic and sexual abuse, saying she was “angry,” “upset” and “frustrated” with the current situation.
And sure, why wouldn’t she be? Join the club. The violent crime situation has been spiralling out of control for years in this country, with sexual violence against women becoming a growing and serious problem across society.
Of course sex crime, like most violent crime, dipped during the Covid lockdown (which is hardly surprising), but the overall trend is towards a situation that is deteriorating.
In February of this year McEntee committed to creating more women’s shelters, saying “From the moment I went into the Department of Justice, I’ve prioritised this issue.”
Strong words indeed. But while the Minister insisted that she’s working on the problem, we’re only now after getting a timeline as to when these shelters might come about.
As reported by the Examiner:
“Ireland will not reach the required number of domestic violence refuge spaces until the end of the decade, Justice Minister Helen McEntee has indicated.
…it could be seven to eight more years before Ireland meets the targets set out in the Istanbul Convention, which requires the Government to increase the number of refuge places by around 350.
…Ms McEntee said officials are also looking at working with local authorities and existing refuges to identify other accommodation options that can be dotted around the country.”
So, to be clear: the government and the Minister herself have admitted that women and girls are not safe in Ireland. They have told us quite clearly that cases like the tragic killing of Ashling Murphy expose the dire threat to women, and have outlined that there are not enough resources to protect women from violence. They say it’s their top priority as regards law and order.
And yet, apparently, the soonest we can get this done is 7 to 8 years from now.
Now in fairness, there’s no doubt a lot more than meets the eye in setting up a domestic abuse refuge. I’m sure there’s a lot that goes into it that you wouldn’t expect.
It’s not just about the accommodation after all – you need counselling services, medical attention, security, food, and so on. It’s probably not totally straightforward, there are likely some unseen moving parts and considerations involved.
But even granting all of that, which is realistically easier: to establish 350 women’s refuges around Ireland, or, say, establish tens of thousands of homes for Ukrainian refugees?
We’re apparently to believe that this women’s shelter task is so herculean, and so incredibly complicated, that the earliest it could possibly be completed is the end of the decade. And yet the government says we’re about to grow our population by 2-3% in a few short months with new arrivals, and that’s supposedly perfectly manageable, virtually overnight.
Leo Varadkar tells an audience at Google's Silicon Valley HQ that Ireland will 'probably balance the books this year' and praises big tech for holding up its economy.
Says Ireland's population will increase by 2% or 3% in a few months with the arrival of Ukranian refugees. pic.twitter.com/Eud77794V0
— Paul Colgan (@paulcolgan) April 27, 2022
It won’t take 7 or 8 years to accommodate those from Ukraine – it won’t even take 7 or 8 months. They’ll get that done lickety split.
What this demonstrates is, when it comes to an issue like accommodating refugees, or addressing climate change, or anything else that wins them brownie points with their international political peers, the government works at breakneck speed. They really kick in the turbo afterburners, like hitting the nitrous in Need For Speed: Underground 2. They’ll move heaven and earth to get the job done without delay.
But when it comes to something that might impact your quality of life, like protecting women and girls from violence, or building the St. James’ Children’s hospital, or rolling out rural broadband? Well, “come back to us in a few years” seems to be the eternal answer.
Even the Dublin MetroLink, which was first proposed in 2005, won’t be completed until 2035 at the absolute earliest – 30 years later, and 7 years past its original projected completion date. God alone only knows when it’ll actually be done.
Dublin MetroLink won't be completed until 2035 at the earliest https://t.co/lyNrcESZvt
— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) February 3, 2022
Some of these projects are less important than others, but the theme remains consistent: what is trendy must be completed now, and whatever ordinary voters want can wait and be put on the long finger seemingly indefinitely. The resources and will are there to get things done quickly – provided they’re things the government cares about. If your values don’t align with theirs, tough luck.
Incidents like this only serve to expose the massive disparity in priorities between the general public and the political classes in Ireland. And with that, the already gaping chasm between the values of the government and the public gets a little bit wider.