Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a number of issues. This week the Women's Aid Annual Impact Report 2021 was published. I find the contents of it shocking. Its findings are deeply disturbing. We have a persistent and profound problem in Ireland with violence against women. I will quote some of the statistics. According to Women's Aid, 33,831 disclosures of abuse were made during 2021. This represents a deterioration on previous years and may be associated in some way with Covid. It means there were 100 cases of domestic abuse every day. Every 15 minutes a domestic abuse incident takes place. That is 24-7 and 365 days a year. In 28,096 cases the targets of this abuse are women. That is one per hour. Every hour, 24-7, a woman is abused or targeted in some way in this Republic. There were 5,735 cases of violence against children. That also represents approximately one per case per hour on a 24-7 basis. I am sorry, it is one assault on a woman every 15 minutes and one assault on a child every hour. We have a major problem with the way we treat women and children. We have a history of it going back to the mother and baby homes. We treat our citizens with contempt. This is something I will return to next week in relation to the broader issue of abuse and harm to children in this country. We also had more than 400 disclosure of rape to Women's Aid during 2021. That is, every single day in this Republic a woman is raped in the home, which is supposed to be a place of safety - for those who have homes.

In that context, I return to a subject I also find very disturbing. That is the broader societal context. It has come to my attention that the Defence Forces, under the Defence Act 1954, continue to investigate and try cases of sex assault. I got a clarification that in sex assault cases where both the perpetrator and the victim are Defence Forces members and the alleged offence occurred on military property, under the Defence Act 1954, the perpetrator is usually tried by court martial. That is completely unacceptable. That is akin to the system in which the church dealt internally with its own abusers and rapists of children. We cannot allow the Defence Forces to investigate themselves in that matter. I am aware of many cases of serious sex assaults on both male and female members where the charges are broken down into lesser section 168 charges under the Defence Act and these are minor administrative charges. As a consequence, they are masking and concealing the actual level of the problem within the Defence Forces. This also has the effect of sex offenders in our armed forces then not being subject to the provisions of the Sex Offenders Act. I would therefore like a debate in the House. I would like to know how many sex offenders tried by court martial in our Defence Forces over the last 22 years since I drew attention to this have been notified to the sex offenders register because I am also aware of rapists in the Army who were not properly dealt with and then went on to rape women in the broader community.

The Defence Forces purport to defend the State against external and internal aggression. If it is not a safe place for 51% of the population it is not fit for that purpose. We really need to draw attention to this. In conclusion, I raised 22 years ago that all matters of sexual assault within our Army, Naval Service and Air Corps should be investigated by An Garda Síochána. I raised this 22 years ago and it has not changed. They are still doing it internally and still covering it up. This is not just a case of "me too", but a case of "we too". In the context of the broader societal problem and in the specific case of the Defence Forces, each of us has a responsibility to bring pressure to bear on the Minister for Defence, the Secretary General of the Department and the General Staff to straighten up and fly right in this regard.