“Reform is glacial” when it comes to gender-based violence.
So says Carlow Kilkenny Sinn Féin TD, Kathleen Funchion as this year’s 16 Days of Activism campaign begins.
The annual initiative aims to raise awareness and move towards eliminating violence against women and girls.
Last year there was a 22% increase in the numbers seeking shelter from domestic violence in Kilkenny, while Carlow is still one of nine counties without a refuge.
Speaking to KCLR News, Deputy Funchion says the delays are unjustifiable; “There’s been very little progress and I think until we actually know a definite date, a definite facility and exactly what’s going to happen you can kinda can say there’s really been no progress on it, now I do know like we often hear that there’s various meetings going on, various talks going on and to be fair to the campaign group they are doing great work but, like, why don’t we know when exactly we’re going to get a refuge and if it is such a priority for Government then why don’t we have timeframes?”.
Deputy Funchion adds; “I feel like everything is extremely slow, frustratingly slow, in this sector, to be fair there has been some very good announcements in terms of a new agency being set up with responsibility for all aspects of anything to do with domestic violence but we still haven’t actually seen that agency up and running and it’s also really important that it’s given the correct resources and we still see our local services having to fundraise for very, very basic things”.
