Ms Caroline Counihan:

I do not think so. The way people usually come to me is they approach a rape crisis centre because all of a sudden it has come to the surface in their lives. I am thinking in particular of people who have been victims of historic child sexual violence or, at the other extreme, where there is a very acute need. Generally, they do not find it very difficult to tell people in rape crisis centres who have specialist training in dealing with trauma. By and large survivors do not find it an ordeal to talk to people at rape crisis centres. The people who work in all our centres throughout the country and other rape crisis centres are good at working out what is a legal query they cannot answer or should not try to answer. At that point they get in touch with me and I respond to the client. Perhaps we might have a meeting, they might ring me or I might ring them. We might email each other, whatever suits, and that is how it happens.

I hope and pray it is not a traumatic encounter for them. The aim of what I say is to explain the system to them to address their particular concerns where I can, and to reassure them if they decide to report that somebody from a rape crisis centre can go with them at the earlier informal stage when they report what has happened. They can also go with them to the Garda station or, more commonly nowadays, to the rape crisis centre itself, for their formal statement to be taken. It is the idea of working with An Garda Síochána at local level to provide, as far as possible, wraparound support that addresses all of the concerns of the client. I am the legal element of this. I hope it is not traumatic for them to talk to me.

I have had some very upsetting conversations. Sometimes I have had to tell people things that I know are legal facts and they do not particularly want to hear that, unfortunately, this is how far they can go in this direction and there is no further avenue of appeal.

That can be very difficult. To move on to the formal interview with An Garda Síochána in which a person's statement is taken, there is more and more awareness of how to deal with traumatised witnesses among gardaí. As members will be aware, we now have a certain number of divisional protective services units. These units cover approximately one third of the country and I understand they will shortly cover a bit more. The officers in these units have received intensive extra training in how to deal with particularly sensitive cases, which may involve sexual or domestic violence. In any event, reporting to An Garda Síochána is less of an ordeal than it was but it is, of course, still difficult. No matter how sympathetic the garda is, this is a formal stage of the proceedings and what one says will be recorded and included in one's statement, which will form the basis of the prosecution case. If the case goes to court, one will be cross-examined on that statement. It is still very heavy and very serious and people need legal support. It is no harm to have a lawyer present, particularly to deal with issues of privacy and disclosure. If a lawyer is present, he or she can address those.