Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas Cheann-Comhairle for facilitating the discussion of this Topical Issue matter. The Central Statistics Office, CSO, recorded 2,892 victims of sexual violence in 2021, with roughly 80% of these being girls and women. For that same year, Women's Aid received 1,104 disclosures of sexual abuse, including 411 disclosures of rape. This is a specific and serious dimension of the epidemic of gender-based violence.

Today, I am focusing on one aspect of this broader issue, namely, sexual assault treatment units. It was revealed this week that there was a 25% rise in the numbers presenting at the six HSE sexual assault treatment units. This was the first year the figure was above 1,000. One fifth of those were aged between 14 and 17. These units, in Dublin, Galway, Cork, Waterford, Mullingar and Donegal, do incredible work in treating and helping victims who arrive in a highly vulnerable state. They provide specialised care that is focused on the person. These figures underline their crucial role.

Based on the increase last year, I urge the Minister of State to work with the HSE to provide additional funding and posts to support existing services and the expansion of outreach services. The outreach clinics, in particular, are essential. The Cork city unit recently opened clinics in Bantry, in my constituency, and in Tralee. These are welcome developments and we need more of them. We cannot tolerate a situation where, for example, victims of rape have to go two hours in a car before they get to one of the assessment units because, without going into too much detail around it, people cannot shower before they have those assessments and the further people are from those units, the more traumatic it is for them to travel there.

There is clearly an established need for these centres and for more of them. This is specific work that needs highly trained professionals and there must be investment to recruit and train more staff. This is a complex area to discuss. Each and every incident is truly horrific and wrong and it is important that when people experience these awful crimes and violations that they feel they can turn to and trust our health services. It is also important to say that this is a health service that is separate to the Garda. The health services work closely with law enforcement but no one is compelled to make an official report. It is a highly victim-centred approach.

Professor Maeve Eogan, the national clinical lead for the HSE's sexual assault treatment units and consultant obstetrician at the Rotunda Hospital, described the situation very well when she said:

If you are an optimist you would say more people know about our service, so hopefully the totality of sexual crime is not increasing and people are seeking care and seeking support and accessing that at a time and place that suits them and is responsive to their needs.

Given that we know that reported cases of sexual assault and rape are only the tip of the iceberg and that more people are attending these units, it is clear that more specialist centres will facilitate more victims in coming forward and getting tailored medical and psychological assistance.

There is also a need to understand the implications of these numbers. As Professor Eogan stated, it is unclear if these figures relate to an increase in sexual assaults or in reporting.

We need a unified approach to understand the issues involving the HSE, An Garda Síochána, violence support organisations and researchers. Will the Minister of State clarify when the updated Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland survey will be published? It was commenced by the CSO in 2018 and was due for completion within five years. It will be significant in shaping our understanding and policy development.

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