Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

One week on from the protests around victim blaming in our courts and from an international spotlight on what is going on in this country with regard to rape, I want to raise two issues. After many years, the Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, has at last announced that a new Sexual Abuse in Ireland, SAVI, report is to be produced. The Rape Crisis Centre and, I would say, the entire country is wondering why it will take five years to conduct this research. The purpose of research is to have up-to-date information, not information that is six years old. If the Government provided more funding it would get the report a lot quicker. The sum of €150,000 for the first year is too little. The Government must ensure this research is done quicker.

The second issue is comments in court. The Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, made an inappropriate comment on television the other night about a full blooded defence in response to the type of remarks that are rape apology and paedophile apology remarks by barristers, including "only being held down once", "that the perpetrator did not realise the person was not consenting" - a child - and "this man was not violent". How long are these disgusting comments to be allowed? We do not need to wait for a review to tell us that they are wrong.

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