Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The definition of consent put forward by me and other members of the Anti-Austerity Alliance was copied word for word from the Rape Crisis Centre. We took our cue from people who work in the area, who are experts and who deal with victims. The Minister has picked on one particular word but the definition she has gone with is virtually identical. The need to include definitions of consent is to try to in some way rebalance the rights of victims of rape and sexual assault, who, in the majority of cases, are women. The victims are not always women and obviously men can be the victims of rape but in the majority of cases the victims are women. We have a victim blaming culture when it comes to rape whereby women are continually questioned about their background, what role they may have played, what they wore and whether they fought. This is why these are important, and they have been campaigned for by young people, students, the USI and every progressive organisation there is. We could debate it further, but I am happy to accept what the Minister has put forward, on the basis it takes on board much of what the organisations working with rape victims have said.

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