LAST UPDATE | 3 Jul

TAOISEACH SIMON HARRIS has said there is an epidemic of sexual and gender-based violence in Ireland. 

Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, the Taoiseach said real change has been made by Justice Minister Helen McEntee – including making both stalking and strangulation standalone criminal offences – but the events of the last two weeks “remind us how far we have to travel”.

“Over the past two weeks, we have learned of the names of Natasha O’Brien and Bláthnaid Raleigh. We have learned of their trauma and their abuse at the hands of individual men.

“But we have also learned of the cultures embedded in aspects of society,” the Taoiseach said.

He said he cannot discuss individual cases but believes recent events provide an opportunity for important conversations.

Next week, the Taoiseach will chair a Cabinet committee on the implementation of the national zero-tolerance strategy on gender-based and sexual violence. 

“No organisation in society is immune from the challenge of gender-based violence. How each responds is how it will be judged,” the Taoiseach said.

He continued:

Zero tolerance should mean zero tolerance. That stretches to thebarstools, the Whatsapp groups, the workplace, the footballclubs and the newspaper columns.

“Because it seems there is always someone willing to defend the character of a rapist or a sexual predator.”

He said there is often too few people willing to stand up for the rights of a victim and made the point that their character is often questioned. 

“What were they wearing? How much they had to drink? Did they lead the man on? Why are they so angry?.” 

He said these these “innocent and ignorantly” posed questions can often cause long-lasting damage and trauma. 

“These are the behaviours we all need to challenge,” he said.

He urged people to call out misogyny every time it is witnessed.

Labour motion

Earlier today, Labour leader Ivana Bacik said education is crucial to ensure boys and young men “don’t regard women as objects in sexual terms”, 

The party tabled a bill on gender-based violence that aims to reduce the number of incidents and improve processes for victims who report such crimes.

It comes amid public outcry sparked by a judge handing Irish soldier Cathal Crotty a suspended sentence after he beat Natasha O’Brien unconscious in Limerick in 2022.

Today Bacik, as well as government and opposition parties, restated the need for a radical societal shift in how women are treated in Ireland.

Part of this, she said, will be addressing flaws in the legal system that retraumatise victims and don’t adequately hold perpetrators to account.

Bacik, who worked in the criminal law system for years, says she’s seen first-hand “how ill-equipped aspects of our system are to deal with the reality of gender-based violence”.

“Primary blame of course rests with the perpetrator, that goes without saying. But responsibility for what happens next does lie with the State.”

The Judicial Council was established in 2019 to review current processes and rules, such as the place character references should have in sexual violence cases.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee says work is being done to make the criminal justice system more victim-centric.

In recent years, the maximum sentence for assault causing harm has been doubled, from five to 10 years.

A dedicated sexual offences unit has been recently established within the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Some Special Protective Services Units have been established, where gardaí have special training in dealing with victims of sexual offences.

There are also now registered intermediaries to assist vulnerable witnesses in court.

However, McEntee accepted that a “generational change” in attitudes is needed.

In 2023, Women’s Aid recorded an 18% rise the in disclosures of domestic abuse, the highest level in its 50-year history.

There were 40,048 disclosures to its helpline and in face-to-face meetings during 28,638 contacts last year.

Meanwhile, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre received a record 18,605 calls to its national helpline in the same period.

Education

Minister McEntee says a key part of the government’s “zero tolerance” strategy on gender-based violence is education in schools. 

Reform to junior and senior cycle curriculums that teach the topic will be extended to primary schools “in the most age-appropriate way”.

Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon said there still isn’t “an effective” sex and relationships programme in schools.

He also noted deficiencies in counselling supports in schools to address existing trauma and to combat the “toxic culture” which has been demonstrated.

Gannon denounced the narrative that paints abusers as “monsters”, as it dissolves men of responsibility for their own actions and those of their peers.

This myth prevents meaningful progress in addressing sexual violence and violence against women because it directs attention the way more common and insidious forms of male violence that permeates society.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said far right groups have been perpetuators of misogyny online and in person, which “can lead to these sort of horrific attacks” and the “failure to give justice” to victims.

“We need to do something about people who are actually promoting actively far right groups, actively promoting ideologies of hate, of dehumanization, of misogyny, of anti-LGBT prejudice and other forms of dehumanisation,” he said.

Refuges

Cuan is the recently-established statutory agency dedicated to tackling and reducing domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.

The motion tabled today calls for steady multi-annual funding to be allocated to the agency.

As it stands, there are nine counties in Ireland that don’t have refuges for women fleeing abuse.

Additionally, women who flee to other counties sometimes do not get on the housing list as they are not considered local to the area.

A new refuge, consisting of twelve housing units, is due to open in Wexford town in September.

With reporting from Jane Matthews