Dr. Clíona Saidléar:

Can I reiterate the piece on services? The Children's Rights Alliance, CRA, has outlined a lot of the gaps there. I wish to re-emphasise exactly how thin on the ground services are for children. When we first started collecting data one thing shocked us. When we looked at rape crisis centres collectively, which are essentially adult services, it turned out that we were the biggest provider of services to children, yet we are the providers of adult services. They came to us because there was nowhere else to go. Every rape crisis centre sees children from 14 years upwards and occasionally younger than that. The CARI Foundation sees children from the start, principally the younger age category. CARI is seriously under-funded, as all services are in the NGO sector in this area. There is a huge gap. The Children's Rights Alliance mentioned the sexual assault treatment units, but we only have one for the under 14s which is based in Galway. We need national coverage in terms of children's sexual assault treatment units.

I wish to draw the committee's attention to the fact that we need services that are focused on older children, including teenagers. There is a need to have something specific there because what they experience in terms of sexual violence, risk and perpetration is very specific, and we need that special service.