Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

If the Minister did a straw poll outside these gates and asked people whether they trusted Rape Crisis Network Ireland or Tusla, the new quango established by the Government, to serve the interests of rape victims, we all know what the answer would be. Rape Crisis Network Ireland has been doing this work for 40 years. It has been an advocate and an independent voice for rape victims from a time when the State did not care about rape victims, when there were mother and baby homes and Magdalen laundries and control over women was in full swing in this country. Now Tusla has cut core funding for Rape Crisis Network Ireland, using the excuse that its data collection was not of the requisite standard. Its data collection is considered groundbreaking and a model of best practice by the European Institute for Gender Equality. The excuse is that funding will be maintained for the front line. If funds are cut, rape crisis centres will have to close. It is not for the Minister to decide about the autonomy and independence of an organisation that has been doing this work, and for him to tell it where to put its money and where to take it out. He has employed eight new people but he has cut the funding for Rape Crisis Network Ireland. Why is he doing so?

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