Matt Carthy: “solicitors were resigning from the criminal legal aid panel....others with no legal expertise are representing…”

I appeal to the minister to not have a repeat of this situation, to stop the guillotine and the rushing, and to actually allow proper Dáil scrutiny of legislation.

These are hard-working families, in many cases, where you have two incomes coming into a household, yet at the end of every single month they are stretched.

It devastates lives, it damages families and affects every part of our society. Behind every statistic is a victim, a survivor, a child, a family member whose life has been changed by abuse.

This situation requires urgent and ongoing action.