Ms Noeline Blackwell:

I will start off because Deputy Coppinger mentioned the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. There is a 4% or 5% pregnancy rate. The 2002 SAVI report is too old, but it is all that we have. Only 42% of people ever speak about the rape. When one woman in the report was asked why she had not told anyone that she had been raped, she said that no one had ever asked her before.

One of our concerns, which is shared by our colleague centres, is that only approximately 10% of those who need our services actually access them. This is without any complication of pregnancy. Therefore, it is likely that those who are better resourced or have better supports are the people most likely to access us. We have a concern about people not knowing how to access us.

The barriers that the Deputy asked about are long-term abuse and disruption. Since 75% to 80% of victims and perpetrators know each other, it is disruptive to report. For example, someone might be reporting her father, husband, long-term partner, boss, etc. Self-denial of the rape is also a barrier. It takes a long time. People phone and tell us that, for example, something happened and they do not know what it was but it was not rape. It turns out to have been rape, though, only the person was not ready to say it. Denial can last a long time.

Dealing with various authorities can be another barrier. We have an excellent police service that has been working hard to put in place specialist investigative units, but not all of those are in place yet. There are patchy reporting skills in the police. It can be difficult for everyone to understand perfectly how to receive a report of rape.

A question was asked about someone being deserving. Once a woman is asked to sign a certificate, her power to say that she was raped is taken away from her. Someone else has to make a decision about that rape. We were slow to raise this issue at all. Traditionally, rape crisis centres are non-judgmental, confidential places that do not speak on these issues. In the interests of the women who were approaching us, though we felt that we had to ask legislators to think carefully before putting barriers to healing in their way. This is why we are speaking about the dangers of requiring a woman to get a certificate saying that she was raped signed by someone else.