Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the opportunity to be here today to discuss the publication of the Central Statistics Office, CSO, survey providing national prevalence figures on sexual violence in Ireland. I thank the House for facilitating this discussion. The Sexual Violence Survey 2022 focused on respondents' experiences of a broad spectrum of sexual violence and harassment experienced in their lifetime It is entirely appropriate that the Dáil has an opportunity to consider this important research. There is no doubt but that many of the figures and statistics are shocking.

As Members know, the survey covers a range of behaviours from non-contact sexual violence right through to non-consensual sexual intercourse or rape. It tells us a lot. It tells us that 40% of people in Ireland have experienced sexual violence at some stage in their lives and that for women this rate is 52%, while for men it is 28%. It tells us that 18% of adult women and 3% of adult men have been raped, which is difficult to even comprehend let alone say out loud.

At times, the report is difficult to read. Oftentimes, it is sobering. At times while reading, we need to stop for a moment to consider the import of individual results and statistics, and the potential reasons behind them. For example, younger people reported higher levels of sexual violence, 80% of those who experience sexual violence knew the perpetrator, and females were more likely to disclose sexual violence than men.

There is much to reflect on for us as policymakers and as law-makers but also for wider Irish society. I am acutely aware that behind these numbers are individuals and real people who have suffered at the hands of someone else. I am conscious that we must be careful not to re-traumatise victims and survivors but these data are necessary and I believe the importance of this study cannot be overestimated.

We knew that this was an area of crime that has tended to be under-reported, and that the numbers we have had up to now did not reflect the true extent of the problem. This is why the Department commissioned the CSO in 2018 to undertake this wide-scale survey.

I thank those who engaged with the CSO, in particular the approximately 500 people who disclosed for the first time that they had been subjected to sexual violence. By engaging in this survey, they have helped us to understand the extent of the problem that we face, as a Government and as a country.

This exceptionally comprehensive and nationally representative survey gives us a new baseline on the prevalence of sexual violence in Ireland. We can use this baseline to measure the impact of our work across Government on this priority issue and we can also develop policy and provide the necessary supports and services. It bears repeating that the figures are devastating, including that one in five of the women have been raped. Equally as stark and upsetting is that we know from this study that the vast majority of these victims and survivors knew the person who did this to them and, presumably, in many cases it was someone they had once trusted. I firmly believe these statistics underline why we need to take a zero-tolerance approach in the third national strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, DSGBV. This is an ambitious five-year programme of reform to achieve a society which does not accept sexual violence or, crucially, the attitudes which underpin it. That societal change, that cultural shift, is key.

The strategy’s accompanying implementation plan, which runs to the end of this year, sets out 144 detailed actions which are assigned to my Department and other agencies and Departments across Government. A key part of the implementation will be the establishment of a new statutory DSGBV agency, which will ensure a permanent and dedicated focus on this important area of work. I am pleased that I recently secured Government approval for the drafting of legislation to create the agency. It will be tasked with ensuring the delivery of excellent services to victims of sexual violence and will have specific functions related to data and research to ensure that our information remains up to date and in line with best practice.

The agency is a whole-of-government priority and we intend to have it up and running by next January, as indicated in the strategy. Other strategy priorities include: to double the number of refuge spaces during the lifetime of the strategy; to strengthen our legislation, both to better support victims and to introduce new offences and increase maximum sentences for perpetrators; to expand the range of supports available to victims, no matter where they live in the country; and to work at a societal level to continue to raise awareness of what constitutes domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, change attitudes to it and signpost victims and survivors to supports.

The actions within the strategy reflect the importance of a range of areas, including education, training, awareness raising, supports and, crucially, having a victim-centred approach to all of our work in this priority area. The need for an evidence-based policy approach to all of this is obvious. It will increase our understanding of sexual violence and help us in government and in society more generally to continue to work towards our shared goal of zero tolerance. We will now start working with the CSO to design and carry out a national prevalence survey on domestic violence, and both the sexual violence and the domestic violence prevalence surveys will be repeated alternately every five years.

Going forward, this will help us to keep our national data up to date and the importance of having robust data is accepted by all and stressed throughout the strategy. It is evident in a number of specific actions and is included as a specific function for the new statutory-based agency, which will be tasked with developing a data and evaluation strategy to ensure there are shared definitions and agreed methodologies for collecting, analysing and sharing data on access to and use of services. Why do we want this information? We need this information in order that we can do better and we will do better. While this strategy is our most ambitious to date, it builds on work already undertaken under previous strategies and under Supporting A Victims’ Journey, our plan to create a more victim-centred criminal justice system.

Through the Supporting a Victim’s Journey plan, a number of recommendations to support victims of sexual crime have been progressed. These include: recommendations on the investigation and prosecution of sexual offences; the introduction of trained intermediaries; actions of training for front-line professionals, which includes the provision of specific training for all of the key people a victim comes into contact with during the course of their journey through the criminal justice system; and the nationwide roll-out of divisional protective services units. This work has been built into, and will be further progressed by, the third national strategy and actions seeking to reduce delays in the trial process.

While significant legislative advancements have already been made, I want to mention some areas we are currently progressing, which include making stalking and non-fatal strangulation stand-alone offences, for which the legislation has passed this House and will now go to the Seanad. They also include increasing the maximum sentence for assault causing harm, one of the most likely criminal offences that a victim will encounter from domestic violence; expanding the existing harassment offence; strengthening the law on consent; and extending victim anonymity to further categories of victims. I believe this is crucial. I hear regularly from victims and families about the supports for them in the courts and the Courts Service. Extending that victim anonymity, coupled with making provision for legal representation for the victim, so it is not just the State and its team and the perpetrator’s team, will ensure the victim has that voice in the court, which is very important. We are also making progress on the following matters: repealing provisions for sentences to be delivered in public; ensuring character evidence in sentencing for sexual offences trials can be tested, given this has been a source of great pain for so many in recent years, and that character witnesses can be cross-examined; and preventing a defendant who is a lay litigant from cross-examining vulnerable victims in trials for certain offences, including coercion, in order to prevent further traumatisation.

I also recently welcomed the enactment of the Sex Offenders (Amendment) Act, which will improve the management and monitoring of sex offenders in the community to protect the public, including through the use of electronic tagging. We know the importance of criminal justice, of strong legislation, of reporting, of supports for victims and of a co-ordinated approach in our work with victims. However, I believe the fundamental weapon we have in the fight against sexual violence is, and will always be, prevention. It is that huge piece of work around changing attitudes and social norms as to what is acceptable. Recognising the importance of awareness raising in this space, the strategy includes actions around a number of ambitious campaigns which will focus on attitudes among men and boys – we cannot remove ourselves from this conversation - increase awareness of services and supports among victims and reach migrant and minority communities, as well as the roll-out of a national campaign on consent.

Last month, my Department launched a significant new awareness campaign highlighting the rights available to victims of crime, with a particular emphasis on reaching minority and harder-to-reach communities. This month, we will be launching phase 2 of our intimate image abuse campaign, which will focus on the crime of threatening to share intimate images without consent, which is often used as an element of coercive control. It is an offence to share an intimate image but it is also an offence to threaten to share, and we will be very clear on that in our new public awareness campaign.

We strongly believe that having a shared understanding of the meaning and importance of consent can play a key role in reducing instances of sexual violence and, later this year, we will be launching a campaign to highlight the importance of consent in healthy sexual relationships. We have already been working closely with the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre to fund its research on consent in Ireland, and I was delighted to recently launch its “We Consent" campaign, which will help to start the discussion on this topic.

We know that well-developed and well-executed campaigns can have a strong impact on bringing about a change in societal behaviours and attitudes. We have successfully done this in the recent past through campaigns such as “No Excuses” and “What Would You Do?”, and I am confident we will continue to deliver excellent results in our forthcoming work.

The CSO will be busy too. I want to thank all of those involved in putting together this huge piece of work, which is the culmination of five years of research and development. Carrying out this survey was a big ask of the CSO and I am extremely grateful to it for taking the time to design and execute this survey in such a comprehensive but, importantly, trauma-centred way. I know it will be releasing a number of significant thematic reports relating to this prevalence survey over the coming months that will provide further information on the types of behaviours involved, on the frequency of the experiences and on discourse and societal attitudes. These too will be hugely important for helping us understand the extent of this problem and addressing the intersectional needs of different groups, something we are determined to do.

To conclude, much of the data to come out of the sexual violence survey are stark and difficult but, sadly, unsurprising. It is accepted, for example, that when it comes to reporting incidents of sexual violence to An Garda Síochána, reporting rates are much lower than the prevalence rates. We need to understand why this is and how we can fix it. We need to understand the full breadth of the problem and this report provides those data and that clarity. The results give us a new baseline for the prevalence of sexual violence in Ireland and we can use it to better provide supports and services, as well as measuring the effectiveness of various measures we put in place to tackle these heinous crimes.

We will continue to work to improve the criminal justice system to make it more victim-centred and ensure that victims have the confidence to report what has happened to them, confident in the knowledge they will be supported at every point and by everyone they encounter on their journey. We remain deeply committed to this. The implementation of the third national strategy is instrumental in ensuring we have a criminal justice system that works for vulnerable victims at every stage of their journey. I thank the Minister, Deputy McEntee, for all her work in this regard.

Regardless of the circumstances in which sexual violence occurs, victims of these horrific crimes should never be concerned about reporting what has happened to them and seeking the help they need and the justice they deserve. They can, and should, report what has happened to An Garda Síochána. I want any victim or survivor listening today to know there are now specially trained gardaí in every Garda district to engage with and support victims of sexual violence, no matter where one lives in the country.

Lastly, I again want to recognise the individual stories of bravery, courage and resilience that form the background to these statistics. This is a report of statistics but behind each statistic is a person, a person who came forward and who has helped Ireland on its journey to zero tolerance. I extend my personal thanks to them. Their willingness to share their experiences is truly appreciated and will help us to create a better country.

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