Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has called on the public not to comment on social media about the Ashling Murphy murder case.
“We need to be careful what we say. The process has started, it is important to be allowed to take its course”, she told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.
There needed to be faith in the criminal justice system, Ms McEntee said.
“We all have a responsibility here.”
People have to trust the Gardaí and the system and not do anything to jeopardise the process, she added.
'Zero tolerance'
Ms McEntee defended her department’s role in the provision of domestic violence services.
Her department would be implanting a national plan including 52 actions, she said. The various Government departments involved had listened to the sector about the manner in which services are coordinated. To date they had been “too diffuse” and needed to be better coordinated.
This would require a "whole of Government" coordinated approach, involving “every single department” playing their part, she said.
Ms McEntee said she was very clear about what needed to be done. All the departments involved would report to a specific subcommittee which would be chaired by the Taoiseach.
Funding would not be an issue, she said, echoing comments by the Taoiseach on Morning Ireland that “it’s about putting in place a much clearer and quicker process”.
According to Mc McEntee Zero tolerance of violence against women was her goal.
She said she wants to strengthen the law and make sure that it was enforced. “It’s about societal change. We all have a part to play.”
The Government had committed to a new national strategy to bring about an improved system that would ensure victims were treated with the dignity they deserved, added the Minister.
Ms McEntee said that while she had not received threatening calls as had some of her female political colleagues, she did receive abuse on social media, which to date she had ignored. But she was now going to take a stand and not ignore it. “I will call it out.”
