Cash-starved sex assault units ‘on verge of collapse’
Fiona Neary, executive director of the Rape Crisis Network said: “Lip service just isn’t good enough. Direct funding for these services is vital as they are collapsing already. There aren’t enough trained doctors and those that are available are doing the work on top of running busy practices.”
Rosemary Daly, of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, said services in Dublin have already collapsed as women are waiting for “unacceptable lengths to be examined”.
“It’s an absolute disgrace if this problem isn’t tackled immediately. I have written numerous letters to the department and I’m getting increasingly impatient,” she said.
“Early intervention is vital to victims and should be a fundamental right. If there is a proper service available to them after an incident, the chances of suffering psychiatric problems like depression are greatly diminished.”
However, Department of Health sources indicated yesterday, that it was “unlikely” extra money would be granted to centres in the Budget next month.
Hundreds of men and women are seen each year at units in Dublin, Cork, Letterkenny and Waterford. However, a lack of funding to train and pay doctors for forensic examination is undermining the future of these units. A proper forensic examination is vital if rape and sexual assault cases are to proceed to court. Doctors are currently paid up to €70 for 24 hours on call to the service.
A shortage of staff trained to carry out forensic examinations has caused huge problems already:
Earlier this month, a women who was allegedly raped in Dublin was forced to wait overnight before being transported to Drogheda for a medical examination as there wasn’t a doctor on duty at the sexual assault unit at the Rotunda.
Up to 15 alleged sexual assault and rape victims from Co Kerry were forced this year to make a three-hour round trip to Cork as forensic examinations cannot take place at the Tralee unit due to a lack of funding for dedicated nurses and doctor training.
The Rape Crisis Centre in Limerick has one of the highest rates of calls from alleged victims in the country and yet a sexual assault unit hasn’t been established and victims must take a 90-minute journey, in a garda squad car, to Cork.
