Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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466. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of incidents of drink spiking reported to An Garda Síochána in Cork city and county in the past two months. [55811/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Garda Commissioner is responsible under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended) for the management and administration of Garda business, including the investigation of all allegations of criminal activity. As Minister I play no role in these independent functions.

I am advised by the Garda authorities that identifying incidents which involve drink spiking is dependent on the use of keywords in the incident narrative. I am advised by the Garda authorities that a search was carried out on the PULSE system for incidents which include any of the following terms in the narrative: “spike”, “spiking” or “date rape”.

I am advised by the Garda authorities that, as of 10 November 2021, there have been incidents recorded however these number less than 10 incidents of this type (that is “spike”, “spiking” or “date rape”) recorded in Cork City, Cork North and Cork West Garda Divisions, over the last two months.

As the Deputy may be aware, An Garda Síochána Analysis Service does not typically report on details where there are fewer than 10 incidents in a given period, as there is a risk, due to the sensitive nature of the information, that offenders/victims may be identified if the information were to be released.

It is worth noting that figures are operational and liable to change and are based on a reported date using data obtained from PULSE on 10/11/2021. Crime counting rules are not applied.

Spiking a person’s drink or spiking someone by injection are very serious offences. They are, in effect, poisoning and are criminal offences under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 that can result in a 3-year prison term.

Any incident of this type of crime including those with evidence to suggest a link with ‘spiking’ will be investigated by either local Gardaí supported by, or attached to, Divisional Proactive Services Units.

The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017 has been widely recognised as a landmark piece of legislation dealing with consent and exploitation in sexual activity. For the first time, it set out in statute what consent actually means - a free and voluntary agreement between people to engage in sexual activity.

The 2017 Act amended the Criminal Law (Rape) Amendment Act 1990, to set out certain circumstances where consent is impossible, such as when a person is asleep or unconscious, or if they are so drunk or intoxicated that they are in no position to consider the activity and make up their mind.

The commitment of this Government to combatting domestic, sexual and gender based violence and to supporting victims is reflected in the funding allocated under Budget 2022, with a total of €13m allocated to the Department of Justice in this area. This represents an increased allocation of €5.35m and will enable the roll out of specific awareness raising and training programmes to combat domestic, sexual and gender based violence. It will also provide additional supports to NGOs and specific domestic violence intervention programmes, and it will support a number of front-line activities.

As the Deputy will be aware, my Department has been running a three-year national awareness campaign to tackle domestic and sexual violence. The ‘No Excuses’ campaign is focused on sexual harassment and sexual violence. The aim of the campaign is to intensify the public’s awareness of sexual violence, to bring about a change in long-established societal behaviours and attitudes and to activate bystanders. You will be interested to note that a national awareness campaign, led by my Department, around the meaning and understanding of consent in the context of sexual relationships will be launched in the new year.