Dr. Cl?ona Saidl?ar:

Tomorrow, the Central Statistics Office will launch the first sexual violence survey, so we will have our first prevalence study for a very long time in Ireland. We will know precisely what our baseline is at this time tomorrow. That will be incredibly helpful. Without that baseline, we are picking numbers from the people who come to us, the people who become visible to us and the people who speak out. It is important that we know the prevalence to put a shape on and understand what we are looking at. We will know much more. If I can return to the Deputy, I will be able to answer his question much better tomorrow once that is visible. The CSO is very professional in keeping its data close to the chest until the day.

The second thing I would like to pick up on is the question about funding and need. One of the first jobs of this agency is to set up the national service development plan. This is not to be mistaken for a national needs assessment. It is important that we have not yet got to the place where we are planning on a national needs assessment. On the back of a needs assessment, once we understand the prevalence and once we have properly gone out and understood the need, then we need criteria for funding that are transparent. We should be able to say that 12-year-olds should be seen in rape crisis centres and that every rape crisis centre has access to funding to provide that service because that is a needed service. We should be in that space but we are not. We are still handing out bits and bobs of funding when people ask, almost as grace and favour, in a non-transparent and non-coherent way. It is important that this agency does that work.