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TACKLING SEXUAL ASSAULT and harassment in Irish society will be high on this government’s agenda, the Minister for Further and Higher Education will say today.
Simon Harris will meet with the National Women’s Council’s advisory committee on tackling sexual harassment and sexual violence in third-level education.
A survey by the Union of Students in Ireland recently found one third of female students reported having been raped. Two thirds said they had been sexually harassed.
“I didn’t think I lived under a rock but I was stunned by its findings,” Harris will say in his address to the council.
“It is the same shock I experienced when I launched the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre’s annual report last year. Sexual harassment, sexual intimidation, rape, gender-based violence are becoming increasingly common crimes.
Thankfully, many victims are more willing to come forward now but the warning signs in the USI survey should be a cause to action. We shouldn’t presume that the problem begins or ends in our third level institutions.
The minister will say it can start in homes and schools, through toxic cultures in sports clubs, in workplaces and in pubs.
“I want you to be under no illusion about my determination to deal with this epidemic. And I want the third level sector not to be a problem area but a leader. A leader in diversity. In respect. In inclusion. In zero tolerance.
Consent is not an option. It is a requirement. I don’t care what a victim was wearing. I don’t care how many drinks the perpetrator or the victim had. I don’t care if you believed he or she was “up for it” or not. I don’t care if they came home with you.
“Sex without consent is assault and it is a crime. We cannot address these issues unless we confront the uncomfortable reality that this is happening.”
The minister will challenge the council to come up with three concrete proposals to implement within 12 months.
“It is time to cop on. It is time for us to confront this and it is time for us to do something about it. It is a conversation we must have in every household. On every campus.
“I promise you here today that I, alongside my colleague Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, are committed to being the voice for change in this area. To change the laws that must be changed. To advocate and educate.”
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Simon loves that “cop on” phrase.
@Lotus: It’s appropriate. People do need to cop on over many things.
@Ajax Penumbra:
Simon would want to Cop On to himself also
Dear Mr Harris, when you’ve quite recovered from swooning due to your levels of shock and being stunned, one law you could look at changing is the very sexist law that says if a man and a woman are both equally intoxicated and they go somewhere discreet to express some hastily arranged mutual coital fondness, then only the man is guilty of any sort of an assault.
Of course, the National Women’s Council will probably not have time to bring this up with you in today’s meeting, so I just thought I’d give you something to ponder while you have the smelling salts waved under your nose.
Your determination to deal with this epidemic would I’m sure be widely applauded by the grandparents of those involved, except unfortunately many of those grandparents did not survive some very unfortunate decisions you made or stood over during that other “epidemic” you were involved in.
I realise that optics rather than honesty are vital for a man in your position, but please do not focus your attention on silly, intentionally misleading “surveys” when there are actual problems in this area to solve. A difficult personal habit for you to break, I have no doubt, but you owe it to the tiny amount of people who voted for you to do your best for all of us.
@Finger In The Pie:
The link to thejournal’s report on the aforementioned USI “survey” can be found if one were to google:
5128720-Jun2020
USI survey – “college administrators then
forwarded the study invite email to all
students” “Overall, 8.6% of students in 14 USI affiliated HEIs responded to the survey and 4.3%
completed the entire survey” A very low response rate to the survey with those that had bad experiences more likely to reply than not colouring the survey results. So in conclusion “one third of females of the 8.6% that responded to the survey in third level education feel they have been raped” would be a more accurate statement than the one The Journal went with.
@HopefulEgalitarian: “feel they have been raped” is a very questionable phrase. You wouldn’t use the phrase ‘feel that they have been punched in the face” would you?
@HopefulEgalitarian: Feel like they have been raped? More Rape culture and victim blaming
Ah simple Simon
HE WASN’T FIT FOR HIS OTHER JOB,HARDLY BE FIT FOR THIS ONE.
@Pauline Fedigan: In fairness, his experience as a college drop out gives him an understanding why students don’t complete their degrees.
‘I want you to be under no illusion about my determination to deal with this epidemic’.
Harris thinks he’s still Minister for Health where his determination was simply an illusion that delivered very little.
One in three female students have been raped? Is this a new phenomenon or has it always been a feature of college life?
@Briscoe Sundara: Who do you expect to answer those questions for you?
@Briscoe Sundara: it seems to have always been the case. However reporting has increased in recent decades. The figures are not too far off those of other developed countries.
@Briscoe Sundara: I think there was some questioning of how the questions were phrased and applied definition added afterwards. Not saying it is misleading but it is not as straightforward either.
@Briscoe Sundara: It doesn’t state where they were attacked, or when. It could have happened before they went to college, for all we know. Not that it’s any less disturbing.
Yes and why he is at it, he should take a good hard look at what can only be called in your face legalised fraud of paying idle shadow minister’s an extra sixteen thousand a year. This is when the country is in a very critical stage. Stop playing poker with the electorate.
With Harris,s track record… this will not work out well.
In 2016 the USI reported that one in twelve female students are victims of rape.
Now we’re told it’s one in three. That’s a pretty alarming jump in just 4 years. It means female college students are 4 times more likely to get raped in 2020 then in 2016.
Something doesn’t add up
It might be worth seeing how the questions were phrased on this latest ‘survey’.
It might also be worth reminding students that reporting these crimes to the police is the only way they can hope to achieve justice.
@Will: No, it doesn’t? It simply means that people who are currently studying survived rape at some point in their lives. Also that students who were able to say so when surveyed at college felt able to mention it.
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