Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of the necessity to commission another report of sexual abuse and violence in Ireland, SAVI. The original report was published in 2002 and it was the foundation on which the Ferns, Ryan, Murphy and Cloyne reports were delivered.

I note the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and others are keen to have a second SAVI research report conducted. Interestingly, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality also strongly recommends that a second SAVI report be commissioned.

The previous report was commissioned 13 years ago by the Department of Health, and the then Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform was also involved. This is being moved from Department to Department. The various Departments say it is somebody else's responsibility. We need a Minister to take ownership of this issue and commission another report.

The rape crisis centre has lobbied the Minister for Health, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Minister for Education and Skills but none of them saw it as their responsibility. The only positive response to date has been from the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, who is to be complimented on that. I raise it in the hope that it can be delivered.

The 2002 SAVI report told us that over the lifetime of Irish women and men, 200,000 women and 60,000 men are victims of rape. Surely those figures are alarming and would indicate that it is a national crisis. Over the 13 years since the SAVI report was published, the national policy has been informed by the results and a number of the recommendations of SAVI have been implemented. For example, there are now six sexual assault treatment units in the country, two more than pre-SAVI. There is still a long way to go.

COSC, the National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence, has delivered its first four-year national strategy and it has also funded small awareness-raising campaigns. There has also been a significant increase in the number of victims availing of the rape crisis centres around the country which are vastly under-funded, something else of which we should be conscious. The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre manages a 24 hour national helpline and in 2014 it dealt with over 12,000 calls. Over the weeks after the launch of various high profile reports, such as Ferns, Cloyne and Murphy, the number of calls significantly rise.

This is the important issue. Until the detailed research for a second SAVI is done, we will not know if these increases are due to a rise in the prevalence of the crime or to the victims coming forward feeling that their concerns will be listened to and their stories taken into account and acted upon. Until such time as we have that detailed research, we are in the dark in terms of what is happening in broader Irish society. It is quite an alarming statistic that over the lifetime of Irish women and men, 200,000 women and 60,000 men are raped. Behind those statistics there are harrowing stories indeed.

We also need a second SAVI that can properly inform policy development. As the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality pointed out, a new SAVI research report could review the implementation of the recommendations contained in the original one because some of the recommendations have been acted on but many more have not been. I believe there is piecemeal assessment of the addressing of rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence. It is simply not acceptable that we have a situation where every Department is inclined to say that it is somebody else's fault. This is, collectively, a Government responsibility and what we need is for a Department to take ownership of it and accept that another report must be commissioned.

We are talking about a cost of approximately €1 million. With the prevalence of violence against women and men, in terms of rape, domestic violence and sexual abuse, we cannot pretend that it is not an issue. Getting a report commissioned and published would at least put us on a platform towards further policy development and implementing the recommendations of a new report.

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