Debate contribution: Strategic Framework to End Violence against Women and Girls: Implementation

Debate contribution by Ms Connie Egan on 26 February 2024.

MLA

Ms Connie Egan

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

26 February 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Strategic Framework to End Violence against Women and Girls: Implementation

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4230608

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I am honoured to stand here as an MLA for North Down. I am delighted finally to be able to make my maiden speech, after getting elected in May 2022. I pay tribute to my predecessor, Rachel Woods, who was a dedicated representative for North Down as an MLA and as a councillor on Ards and North Down Borough Council, where I enjoyed working alongside her. I thank everybody who trusted me with their vote and all my friends and family, two of whom are in the Gallery today, who have supported me in getting to this moment. I have lived in North Down all my life. It is a wonderful place to live, work and visit and has so much unfulfilled potential. It is home to a welcoming and diverse community, and I will endeavour to be a voice for all in my constituency. Ending violence against women and girls is a subject that I care deeply about. I am glad to support the motion and amendment, which recognise misogyny as the root cause of violence against women and girls and call for the implementation of a strategy that we desperately need. Shamefully, this is another area in which Northern Ireland has fallen behind, being the only region in these islands without a strategic framework to end gender-based violence. Last year, Ulster University produced a report titled 'Every Voice Matters!', which found that 98% of women who were interviewed had:

"experienced at least one form of"

gender-based

"violence or abuse in their lifetime."

That is a harrowing statistic that reinforces the need for urgent action to seriously tackle this issue in our society. The strategy recognises the whole-society approach that is needed to end violence against women and girls and tackle its root causes. In the last mandate, the Justice Minister, Naomi Long, made much-needed progress on the issue to protect victims. That included introducing a stalking offence, updating revenge porn laws, outlawing upskirting, downblousing and cyberflashing and creating the new offence of coercive control. Legislation is important, but the issue of violence against women and girls is not solely for our justice system to address; we need a whole-society approach to tackling gender-based violence, which thrives in a society where misogyny and sexism go unchallenged. The Executive Departments need to work collectively to implement the action plan, which includes things like education programmes to empower young people with information about consent and healthy relationships; a housing system that recognises domestic violence as intimidation; and support for organisations, such as White Ribbon NI, that work in the community to prevent gender-based violence. Last year, when we had no sitting Executive or Assembly, we saw one of the devastating consequences of siloed working between Departments. We had the absolutely perverse situation that the Executive Office was consulting on an action plan and strategic framework to end violence against women and girls, yet, at the same time, the Department of Health was removing all core grant funding from the Women's Aid Federation. That situation was completely contradictory and failed those who had worked hard to co-design the strategy and all the women whom they support. We need to see not just commitment from all Departments to tackle gender-based violence but resources to fund the necessary programmes and interventions. It is unreasonable to move forward with the strategy and expect the community and voluntary sector, which already leads in Northern Ireland on responding to and tackling the issue, to deliver more, if the resources and support from the Executive do not follow. Last year, Nexus, the organisation that delivers the domestic and sexual abuse helpline, had to close its services for under-16s due to insufficient funding from the Executive. We are failing people by not fully funding those vital services. To go back to my constituency of North Down, we have a Women's Aid refuge that is run by a dedicated and compassionate team but on a shoestring budget. There can be no doubt that that refuge has saved lives and rescued families, but the facilities fall short of others across these islands. A new and accessible facility is urgently needed to meet the needs of all victims and survivors and their families. I hope that the commitments that we have seen so far across the parties will continue in the Executive, with cross-departmental working and sufficient funding to implement all the actions in the strategy. We have a real opportunity to transform Northern Ireland. We can all play a part in tackling the root causes, supporting victims and survivors and ending violence against women and girls.

765 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:38 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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