Debate contribution: Violence against Women and Girls: Deaths of Amy Doherty and Ellie Flanagan

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 23 March 2026.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

23 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Matter of the Day

Heading

Violence against Women and Girls: Deaths of Amy Doherty and Ellie Flanagan

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5465190

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for selecting this important matter for debate. I extend my sympathy and solidarity to the friends and family of Amy Doherty, a young mother of two who was murdered in Derry at the weekend. As other Members said, she was the thirtieth woman killed since 2020, which is unbelievable when you say it out loud. She was the second to be killed in fewer than two weeks, with Ellie Flanagan also having been killed. Those are shocking and shameful statistics, and those two names will go on the list of women who were murdered by men, mostly men whom they knew. Barely a day passes without another horrific story of a woman being assaulted, attacked, violated or killed, and those are just the stories that make the news. Unfortunately, this Executive do nowhere near enough to tackle violence against women and girls, whilst defunding the very services that help women to survive, such as Nexus and Women's Aid. Disgracefully, the North remains the only part of these islands without consistent public funding for groups such as Women's Aid. Does that sound like a Government who are serious about tackling gender-based violence? There has been a lot of talk about education. Our young people absolutely deserve standardised, inclusive relationships and sexuality education (RSE) in every school: education that challenges toxic gender stereotypes and builds relationships rooted in respect, equality and consent. Instead, they get, at best, a postcode lottery of patchy provision. At the same time, we watch political leaders from this place jet off to the White House to pose for photographs with Donald Trump, a man accused of rape and sexual assault by at least 28 women and whose name is littered throughout the Epstein files. Are those the actions of people who value women's lives, be they American, Iranian, Irish, British or Palestinian? Over the past while, many people have pointed out that two women hold the highest positions of political power in the North. Yet, all the while, the epidemic of violence against women actually accelerates. Therefore, without political will and funding, representation alone does not change things .The austerity policies pushed by this Executive will see further erosion of health and social care, good jobs, wages and housing, and they will put more women at risk of violence. We need urgent action on gender-based violence. It has to be real action that is backed by real funding to eliminate its root causes from the top our society down.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:06 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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