Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am skipping other Senators' speaking slots because I am stepping in for the Cathaoirleach, who has to leave presently. I thank all the members of the committee, several of whom are here for this debate, for their work on this, in particular the Chairman. Apart from the detail of what needs to be done about conviction rates, where we can all recognise there is a problem, let us be clear that nobody should be raped or sexually assaulted. It should never get to the point where these crimes have to be brought to trial.

That is at the heart of this issue and let us not forget it. We can get bogged down in legalistic language and alienate people. We need to say strongly that the problem here is there is violence against women and those rates have not changed. We pat ourselves on a back as a society and say we have made so many improvements to people's well-being, but when it comes to violence against women, there has been no change. In fact, we do not even know the extent of it, so it could be even worse, and certainly during the pandemic it was worse. That is particularly true of rape and sexual assault of women, although I do not for a moment want to leave out the men and those of all genders who are raped and sexually assaulted. It is important to mention them. Nevertheless, having read the statement of the National Women's Council of Ireland in particular, I know this is about oppression and control of women, their sexuality and their bodies, for generations and decades, and that is at the heart of all this.

That is recognised in the report. Part of the reason for the under-reporting relates to shame about sexuality and coming forward. It is difficult to know what exactly is the reason for the under-reporting, but I believe the low conviction rates contribute to it. When I sat on the joint policing committee of Galway City Council, there was not even a statistic for how many people were coming forward with rape and sexual assault incidents. There were statistics for everything else, from bike crime to drug offences, yet that fundamental problem at the heart of our society, that poison and epidemic, was not reported. I am fortunate I was able to have it changed in the case of Galway City Council, but those statistics need to be provided throughout the country. We need to bring these issues to the surface and have a proper conversation about them if we are to deal with them in order that people will feel they can come forward.

The main issues the report seems to have identified relate to the delays in trials proceeding, the need for specialist training of front-line professionals and the need for improved court services and facilities, including judges. I will concentrate on the issue of relationships and sexuality education, RSE, which is at the heart of the problems within our society. One recommendation was to incorporate the teaching of consent within new RSE curriculums at primary and secondary and to roll out programmes of consent throughout tertiary education. Some of that is starting to happen but not quickly enough, and we have to ask ourselves why that is. It is not only about reducing the rates of rape and sexual assault but also about who sits on the juries and the kinds of rape myths and biases people bring in. I was the foreperson of a jury in one of these cases. Everybody brings their baggage in with them, and if they have had training in consent, they bring that in with them as well.We need a serious overall of the relationship and sexual education curriculum.

I welcome the confirmation last week by the Minister for Education that homophobic statements in school social, personal and health education, SPHE, materials have been removed by the Department of Education. I am not sure why they were there in the first place but it was confirmed last week that they have been removed. There is no place for this in our teaching. We must have an inclusive and progressive curriculum on RSE that is reflective of a modern Ireland and includes all sexual and gender identities to avoid excluding LGBTQI people. This must come outside of religious influence, which is a problem across our schools. We need strong oversight of external facilitators and it must be consistent across schools. Students need to be exposed to ideas of consent and inclusive sexuality and relationships education from an early age in order to root out these issues from society.

Another recommendation is to ensure separate legal representation to support victims of sexual assault. That is critical, quite apart from the other issue of having more judges. People must feel comfortable and supported through the process. I point to the programme for Government commitment to implement the findings of the O'Malley review of supports for vulnerable witnesses in sexual violence cases, particularly its recommendation on the need for intermediaries for vulnerable victims. The report recommends we introduce a registered intermediaries scheme similar to that in place in Northern Ireland. These intermediaries would be professionals who help people to communicate to the court, not only having legal representation but support in communicating.

A number of countries in common law jurisdictions have already successfully implemented such schemes. I know there is a pilot scheme under way here. I am interested in hear from the members of the committee if there is an update on that pilot. The Rape Crisis Network has advocated a flexible approach across the use of these schemes, for example, in cases where a vulnerable witness may be better served by an intermediary with no professional training but who is familiar with the witness's particular style of communication.

It is also important to recognise the difficulties for organisations that support those who are victims in finding funding. I am informed that it is difficult to shake a bucket for services that support people who have been raped on the streets of our local towns. That needs to be recognised and more resources need to put in place to support these organisations.

I would like to publicly praise the work of a few organisations in Galway. The Galway Rape Crisis Centre provides counselling and support for those affected by sexual abuse and sexual violence in the county. I read through its annual report for 2020 and the amount of work its staff and volunteers do is incredible. They provide an important service, one for which, unfortunately, there is very high demand. One of the shocking statistics about crime of this kind is the number of abusers who are family members, friends or partners of the survivor.

I also mention two other organisations. COPE Galway is a charity that provides support services for people who are homeless, often women and children who are experiencing domestic abuse, and older persons. In 2020, it helped 603 people as part of its domestic abuse services. Domestic Violence Response is another organisation which offers counselling and support for victims of domestic violence.

My time is up. There is so much more to be said. I thank Deputy Lawless for the committee's work. Having this matter aired in this setting is an important step.