Dr. Karan Casey:

I thank the Senator. I appreciate everybody's support but that is the job of the committee. Nobody looking at this would disagree we need these changes. For ourselves, the most important element is an independent body that can investigate claims. That takes the burden off us and we do not need it. We need to go out and sing, and that is what I want to do. People should be able to report across the spectrum - I do not want to label them as minor transgressions - but there is belittling and condescension, putting women down or bullying them. This supports or props up the more serious crimes of harassment, sexual harassment, assault and rape. There should be a separate statutory body as a mechanism to take these complaints, investigate them and hand over the more serious matters.

There should be a package across all the arts, and I cannot state that strongly enough. This is not just about folk and traditional, which I love, but it takes in all the arts. There is the question of harassment, what it is, who to go to if something happens in the workplace or at a session, and consent. Training could be rolled out very easily by Comhaltas, which I work for often and admire greatly for its fantastic work. It has not been and I ask all stakeholders to come up with this.

The final request we have is funding. If women contact this complaints process, they should have funding for legal representation and counselling. We really need counselling and I am in counselling. Women in FairPlé are vicariously traumatised, having absorbed hundreds of accounts of abuse. It is very difficult to absorb that, as Ms Ní Nualláin will testify. We could do this and work together for solutions. People along the way have said that of course they will help, and while I do not want to accuse anybody of platitudes, members really need to get this sorted out.