There has been a 100% increase in calls for help to Rape Crisis Centres around Ireland in the last ten years.
The Rape Crisis Network Ireland’s (RCNI) annual report has found that rape crisis centres offered 15,194 appointments for counselling and support last year.
That marked a 25% increase on 2019 – with the biggest jump recorded in April when the number of appointments offered jumped by 63%.
The RCNI said many survivors found lockdown and the anxiety and fear caused by COVID, “very triggering.”
In all, 1,241 people took up counselling and support at seven or the 16 rape crisis centres last year.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, RCNI Executive Director Cliona Sadlier said this year’s report looks back on the last decade to get a broader picture of the situation in Ireland.
“Over that ten-year period, there has been a 100% increase in helpline calls,” she said.
“There has been a 63% increase in the appointments offered by rape crisis centres so we are really talking about rape crisis centres going above and beyond over the last decade - and that is through austerity - to make that happen.”
Calls for help
She said the increase is likely a combination of an increased level of sexual assault and survivors becoming more comfortable in coming forward.
“If you think about the cultural changes, the type of conversations we have been having over the last decade, a lot of that answer is that people are coming forward and we really, really welcome that,” she said.”
There has been a 100% increase in calls for help to Rape Crisis Centres around Ireland in the last ten years.
She said funding for the sector had not returned to the level it was at before the economic crash in 2008 by the time the pandemic hit.
“When it came to responding in 2020, we really had nothing left back in the tank in many ways,” she said.
“It is an incredible story how rape crisis centres managed to adapt and be really agile in that space and to deliver as they have done in this report - and there is a huge increase in service delivery in 2020 - despite the starting point of being starved of finding for ten years.
“That needs to change. We certainly have a level of waiting lists everywhere and as any survivor will tell you and certainly as anyone working or volunteering in a rape crisis centre will tell you, a waiting list is heart-breaking and unethical – we really shouldn’t have them.”
Funding
Ms Sadlier said a recent Europe-wide report estimated that sexual and domestic violence was costing the Irish taxpayer €4bn per year.
She urged the Taoiseach to bear that in mind as funding decisions are being made for next year’s budget.
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