Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister opened very well when she spoke about the very tragic passing of Ashling Murphy and what that has done for our country in uniting all of us in the joint approach to tackle now the scourge of violence against women in this country.

There are many issues to be tackled, not alone in the legislation, but as I mentioned earlier today, the wraparound services and how we deal with victims when they take that brave step to come forward. I raise directly with the Minister the experience of Councillor Deirdre Donnelly here in Dublin who has gone public with her experience. She experienced a sexual assault and brought the case to An Garda and then on to the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP. Her experience of going to An Garda was not as good as it could have been. She was repeatedly interrupted while giving her statement. Senator Keogan’s request for a “Do not Disturb” sign on the door is a very logical and small thing that could be done which would make it a much more comfortable experience the person coming forward, the complainant.

To have a consultation with the victim in order to give them a reason as to why, perhaps, the case may not progress could also be very important. Even though the evidential bar to be met is quite high, it does not mean that the victim has not suffered and there is some work to be done there.

I welcome the Minister’s comments around a zero tolerance approach to violence against women but we need to put flesh on the bones there and to outline in greater detail what that actually looks like and means and how we are going to achieve it. It is a very aspirational point we want to get to and it will be a difficult thing to achieve but it is doable. It will take considerable work over many years to get to that point.

As I said, we need wraparound supports. We need to improve the education of our gardaí to deal with these very specific gender-based crimes. That is not at all to criticise An Garda in how it does its work but we are talking about a very specific set of crimes here, with predominantly female complainants.I believe there is an extra sensitivity in how we have to deal with these situations. We also need to improve the access to refuges around the country. A whole swathe of Ireland has no access to a refuge for women. When a woman makes that decision to leave, very often in the dark of night or when there is that little window to get out the door, if she does not have somewhere to go, it can be fatal. That is the level we are talking about. To not have a bed to bring her children to in a safe space is really just inexcusable in this day and age. It is a small amount of money. There should be a sense of urgency, particularly around that point, to get those refuges up and running. Every moment we talk about it, there is a woman looking for a space to go. Refuges are more likely to turn somebody away than take them in because of the pressures on that service.

The judicial system needs a complete overhaul in how victims move through that system. It is a well-known fact that approximately 5% of rape complaints actually end in a prosecution. We have much work to do there. That fact is so well known that it actually discourages victims from making a complaint because the biggest fear any woman has is that she will not be believed. When we look at the statistics, we can understand why a woman would think that.

If we really want to discourage these criminal offences and these types of gender-based crimes, we need to send a message to the potential perpetrators that if they do this, they will be prosecuted and serve their time. As it stands, however, a person would almost be unlucky to be convicted of raping somebody in this country because the prosecution figures are so low.

I will reference an experience of going through the court system. I will be mindful of the constraints in this regard, a Chathaoirligh. The Belfast rape trial is a very well-known trial of an alleged sexual offence. I found it quite difficult to read about the way that trial was conducted, as I think many women did. If ever there was a judicial process that would send a message to any potential victim that this was a difficult road to go down, that was it. That particular trial, because it was so widely publicised, would have scared many potential victims from coming forward.

As the Minister said earlier when she spoke about the stalking Bill, we have a job of work to do to get the message out there that victims should come forward and report these crimes, and there will be support and they will be believed. In that particular case, there were references to the victim's past sexual history, what she was wearing on the night and what underwear she was wearing. That is completely irrelevant in my view. The purpose of that type of cross-examination is to tear the victim to shreds, discredit their character and undermine them as a person, and to try to speak directly to the jury and tell them they cannot believe this person because of the type of character they have. That is generally the defence that can be mounted in defence of a person accused of a sexual crime. I do not know exactly how we deal with that but I certainly think talking about a victim's underwear or what they were wearing on a night out is completely irrelevant.

There is also the possibility that access to a complainant's previous counselling history can be brought in as evidence. Again, that should be completely outlawed. That should not be allowed. A person should know that when they seek help, it should be kept confidential and private as with their medical information.

I realise I am completely out of time.