Rape centres face increasing funding crisis

FURTHER evidence of the funding crisis hitting services for rape and abuse victims has emerged with the Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) revealing its members have less than two-thirds the budget they need to survive.

RCNI executive director Fiona Neary said cutbacks, curtailment of services and increasing dependence on charity were the norm for the 16 rape crisis centres it represents around the country .

“Services are not being extended where they need to be extended, local helplines are working restricted hours, services are dependent on volunteers and staff are not getting annual pay increases,” she said.

The bleak picture was presented a day after the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC), which is the largest in the country and runs a national helpline, revealed that calls from victims of sexual violence increased by 11% last year.

DRCC head of clinical services Angela McCarthy said she was bitterly disappointed that appeals for extra State funding to meet the growing workload had gone unanswered.

Ms Neary said any increase in demand on the national helpline had a knock-on effect for already over-stretched regional services. She backed the DRCC’s comments on funding, saying the State’s contribution to services had not increased since 2003 and, in the case of some centres, since 2002.

In 2003 and each following year, the total budget for the rape crisis centres, women’s refuges and associated support services, was just over €12 million, but it was calculated an additional €7million euro was required properly to meet the needs of clients. The deficit was growing yearly, Ms Neary said.

“Sexual violence is just not a priority for this Government. They have an illusion that if a rape victim can’t get counselling or get through to a helpline, they will just go away and remain invisible. That’s not what happens. They end up in GPs’ surgeries or in psychiatric units or on prescriptive drugs and anti-depressants. So even from a purely economic argument, it’s a false economy.”

Ms Neary said responsibility for funding the services was impossible to pin down as the Health Service Executive (HSE) was responsible for day to day funding but any major increase, such as that sought by the RCNI, had to be a decision from the Department of Health. “We’ve been from Billy to Jack and back,” she said.

A statement from the Department yesterday said Minister for Health Mary Harney had requested the HSE to review its funding priorities for the sector.

The HSE said it was looking at needs on a region by region basis but had no new developments to report. It has, however, stated it will seek State funding for one significant related project, the provision of two new Sexual Assault Treatment Units to serve Galway and the Midlands.

The two new units would supplement the five existing ones and help cut down travel time for victims who often face journeys of several hours for specialist attention after an assault.