LAST UPDATE | 30 Jan 2023

THE COUNTRY’S SIX Sexual Assault Treatment Units (SATUs) saw more than 1,000 people last year – the first time the treatment centres have breached the 1,000 barrier since they began collecting annual data in 2009.

Dr Maeve Eogan, National Clinical Lead for the SATUs, said the number of people seen by the centres in Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Mullingar and Waterford increased by almost 200 people compared with the total number of people assisted in 2021.

Finalised data will be published later this year but Dr Eogan said a fifth of those who attended SATUs last year were aged 14 to 17, while the proportion of those attending the units reporting the crime to gardaí fell below 60%.

Dr Eogan said: “We began to collect annual figures for all six SATUS in 2009 and 2022 was the busiest year and for the first time, we provided care to more than 1,000 people. It was almost 200 people more in 2022 than in 2021.

“If you are an optimist you would say more people know about our service, so hopefully the totality of sexual crime is not increasing and people are seeking care and seeking support and accessing that at a time and place that suits them and is responsive to their needs.

“But we don’t know that for sure and it could be that sexual crime is increasing.

“There is a whole lot of international evidence that the acute services see the tip of the iceberg as such, in terms of people reaching out for care after sexual crime.

“I would hope that the iceberg is not getting bigger but that the tip [of it] we are seeing is getting bigger.”

As for people attending SATUs who made a report to gardaí about what had happened to them, Dr Eogan said that based on preliminary figures, “it does look like in 2022 the proportion of people reporting to An Garda Síochána reduced somewhat – over 60% reported to An Garda Síochána in 2021, whereas under 60% reported in 2022″.

Dr Eogan said the majority of people attending the units had reported the crime and attended for assistance and to have DNA evidence taken, while another group of people attending do not wish to make a report to gardaí.

However, a third group, estimated to equate to around 15% of attendees, are unsure about making a report but have DNA evidence stored in case they wish to report to gardaí at a later stage. SATUs retain the evidence for a year initially and potentially for longer.

While the taking of DNA evidence and initial screening can only be done at SATUs, there has been a growing number of outreach centres around the country in other locations allowing for follow-up care. An Outreach clinic opened in Bantry last year linked to the Cork SATU, and in December another Outreach clinic opened in Tralee, again linked to the Cork Unit.

Margo Noonan, the head of the Cork SATU, said provisional data indicated there were 190 new cases last year – a significant increase on the number of people seen in 2021 and higher than the previous annual peak of 165 people in 2019.

Noonan also said that the total number of people seen included as many as 15 men – far higher than the usual number of two or three in recent years.

Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Dr Eogan said the SATUs welcome all gender identities and that “it’s really important that we’re not just seen as a women only service in order that people feel included”. 

Noonan also said the Tralee outreach clinic was opened on the basis of the success of the Bantry outreach facility.

“We started in December, we did our first clinic and got to see our first patient then which was great because there were people looking for it for a long time,” she said.

So far the clinic has seen five people and Noonan said the opening of the facility had also led to increased engagement with secondary schools and with Munster Technical University in Tralee in relation to discussions on consent and disclosures.

In Cork, the SATU is getting second refrigeration unit due to the number of people providing DNA samples for storage because they have yet to decide if they wish to make a report to gardai about what happened to them. All forensic services will remain in Cork while the outreach centres provide follow-up care.

Dr Eogan said there had been an increased focus on sexual and gender-based violence in the past year which had helped raise awareness and that the outreach centres also eased some pressure on those attending them, meaning they may not have to miss work or pay higher transport costs to avail of follow-up care.

She stressed that the best societal response to sexual crime is that each incident is reported.

“When people talk about education in colleges, absolutely there does need to be but we cannot forget the very critical role of in-school education, parental education and societal discussion starting from an early age and letting children know that they have a right to bodily integrity and letting children know what to do if something is not right,” she said.

Social Democrats TD Holly Cairns said that based on the figures of those attending the SATU’s last year, “it is clear that additional funding is required to allow for a greater geographical spread of these specialised units, as well as the expansion of outreach services”. 

“It is not yet known why there are increased numbers attending Sexual Assault Treatment Units. Therefore, the HSE and gardaí should be given all available resources so they can analyse the figures anda fuller picture of sexual violence in Irish society,” Cairns said.