Dr. Karan Casey:

There is real urgency for this. There is some sort of belief that we are looking for gigs. Personally, I have been accused of looking for attention and gigs and being difficult and dangerous.

Many of the campaigners in both MiseFosta and FairPlé have been ostracised and taken out of work for this campaigning. In Úna Monaghan's groundbreaking research, more than 125 men and women came forward to make statements. The Irish Theatre Institute, ITI, collected over 1,300 stories of harassment, coercion, bullying and sexual assault. There is a crisis out there and women have nowhere to go to.

There is a broad spectrum of transgressions, from being harassed, told what to wear, what to sing, what to say, what not to say, getting into a van - and I am talking from my own experience of men making comments, saying, "Jaysus where we you last night? You should have seen the woman in the lap-dancing club, the pair on her." - to more serious incidences of serious rape and assault. They include women, including wives and girlfriends, not being allowed to go backstage because we are distracting, backing singers being forced to give blow jobs, younger women in colleges being groomed for sexual favours, teenagers being groomed and taken away on tours, drugged and then assaulted. Women are being charmed by men who abuse their power on the stage and look for sex after gigs. Minors are being abused during their weekly music lessons. It goes on and on. Somebody needs to take this on because we cannot deal with it.