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

A total of 80% of rape victims do not report their experience or seek counselling. That is four out of five rape victims. They will not go to Tusla, but they will contact rape crisis centres, at least on the phone. The information being gathered by Rape Crisis Network Ireland is very important. In Ireland, one in five girls will be sexually abused over their lifetimes, as well as one in six boys. One in ten women will be raped in their lifetimes. This is how the Minister is treating women in this country. Rape Crisis Network Ireland has much more experience of dealing with this than Tusla. Tusla is a child agency, by the way, and it is not equipped to deal with sexual violence. The Minister should just admit this is a cut. Tusla cannot do what Rape Crisis Network Ireland has done. The Minister is interfering by telling it to manage with less and keep its front-line services open. Front-line services need back-up and independent information. Of course rape crisis centres will close. When refuges for victims of domestic violence closed last year, the Minister did not care and councils had to step in. The Minister said he expects centres to remain open even though their funding has been cut, but he has employed people in a new quango. First we had the HSE and now we have a sub-quango of the HSE being used to cut funding to rape crisis centres and women.

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