Debate contribution: Ending Violence Against Women and Girls
Debate contribution by Ms Michelle O'Neill on .
- MLA
- Ms Michelle O'Neill
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 21 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Ending Violence Against Women and Girls
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5742053
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I regret the way in which you have brought that question forward. Tackling the problem that we have with violence against women in girls is a subject on which we should all be united. The collective effort that we have around the Chamber on the issue is important, so I encourage you not to point score. I also encourage you not to use victims. I have said consistently in the Chamber, because each of your party's representatives stand and ask about the past, that there were many tragedies and injustices in the past and we need to create space to allow people to remember their dead. Let us do so respectfully; let us create space for each other; let us ensure that we look towards the future with more confidence and allow young people to grow up in a world that many in the Chamber did not get the opportunity to grow up in. I encourage you to look to the future. I know that that is not your party's style — you look to the past. That is certainly not my style. I am about the future. My eyes are focused on the future. You can continue to look backwards. As your party conference told us, you want the days of old. They are not available to you.
219 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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