Dr. Clíona Saidléar:

As a social scientist, I would say there is a feeling that somehow society is becoming more brutal, particularly regarding sexual violence and the culture and attitude around sexual activity and behaviour. Looking more broadly, however, I do not believe it is possible to stand over that because what we are seeing is difference rather than more. It just shows up in different ways, in different places with different levels of silence and silence in different places. The members of this committee create legislation. Law is social engineering, but the work we do in perfecting the justice system, perfecting the legal response, perfecting how the State vindicates survivors and holds perpetrators to account must be backed up and will be frustrated if we do not invest in primary prevention. We need to engage in a very conscious way based on evidence. We have evidence and we need to invest in primary prevention because this work will be frustrated if we do not.