Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Spiking is terrifying and with sight of the figures from the sexual assault treatment shared with the Minister’s Department, these are genuinely telling us that the incidents are on the rise. What is even more terrifying is the relatively recent phenomenon of needle spiking where women are being injected completely unbeknownst to themselves. A young lady from my village shared her experience of socialising with friends in Dublin city in the past year and, God bless her, it was horrendous. She is not over it and I guarantee that is something that will be with her for many years to come.

Another lady asked how we are going to protect ourselves from this. How does one go out on a night out and ensure that one's drink is not spiked without holding one’s hand over the drink. Even more sinister are these needle and prickless events which are happening which are far more brutal.

There are queries about the existing laws and about how we should be able to use those but the simple fact of the matter is they are not effective enough and are certainly not giving people reassurance that we are doing something in taking this seriously. We need to focus on the immediate act by introducing the legislation but we also need to look at this from a victim’s perspective and at the longer term impacts it has on victims.

I refer to an incident in Mary Immaculate College in Limerick probably during the Covid-19 period about a year and a half ago. Parents were greatly worried about their children thereafter, even those who had not been directly impacted by it. We, therefore, need to look at it very seriously.

Additionally, victims may also face social stigma, judgment and victim blaming, further exacerbating their distress. What is very worrying is that when one talks to those victims, sometimes they blame themselves as if they had done something to contribute to the act itself. That is very wrong.

Senator Seery Kearney noted in the past week when she introduced this Bill on behalf of all of our team that somehow these victims feel they have done nothing wrong. The message we need to send out not only to the victims, but to the people who are fearful, is that they have done nothing wrong and that we will stand by them. I am aware Deputy Harris is coming to the end of his term as Minister for Justice. I commend Deputy Harris and thank him for listening and for being as active as he has been for the past number of months. I wish him well in his future and welcome the return of the Minister, Deputy McEntee, on Friday. I hope Deputy McEntee will take the rest of this Bill through the Houses. I thank the Minister.