Tusla and RCNI data collection spat turns into legal battle
Tusla defended its move, saying it was trying “to achieve the best use of limited resources” while maintaining frontline services.
At the time, RCNI executive director Cliona Saidléar warned that “Tusla have effectively shut us down”; and that last summer’s annual report could be its last.
According to Ms Saidléar, Tusla made it clear that it believed its own research unit could do RCNI’s work. Ms Saidléar countered that no, this wasn’t legally possible as a state agency “can’t collect reliable data from survivors”.
Only rape crisis centres could gather that data, she argued, from their client files. They were the legally sanctioned “data collectors” and as the representative body, RCNI was allowed to analyse the information “to meet the needs of and advocate for survivors and help prevent sexual violence”.
Rape crisis centres were trusted by clients, she said, and had a “legal right to that client information”. A State agency wasn’t legally entitled to engage in in-depth analysis of that information and survivors didn’t intend to entrust it to them as 80% of abuse survivors do not contact a State agency.
Understandably, relations between both sides soured, but with a series of meetings in the past six months, they had improved somewhat.
However, this spat looks set to become a legal battle after a solicitor’s letter was sent by RCNI to Tusla challenging its right to publish RCNI data in Tusla’s report, Domestic, Sexual, And Gender-Based Violence services.
In the letter, the RCNI formally questioned the legalities of “how Tusla acquired, held, and used data gathered by RCNI”.
Tusla is standing over its report. “Prior to sending the Survey Monkey questionnaire, Tusla had piloted the draft survey tool with seven services, using a cognitive interviewing approach, on-site in the services. Feedback from the pilot process was used to inform the final tool,” the report states.
“Tusla telephone and email support was available to services to address any queries. Tusla, in gathering the data, has taken account of data protection legislation and good practice in data management.”
