Justice minister to roll out late-night charter to tackle harassment and assault 

Venues will be asked to train staff and to bar people for both microaggressions and more serious acts of sexual violence

Justice Minister Helen McEntee. Picture: Don MacMonagle

A nationwide call to arms to tackle all forms of sexual harassment and assault at night time is being proposed by Helen McEntee, the justice minister.

All pubs, clubs, and other night-time venues are to be asked to sign up to new measures requiring them to train staff and to bar people for both microaggressions and more serious acts of sexual violence.

Ms McEntee is finalising a night-time economy charter as part of a wider zero-tolerance strategy of sexual violence and harassment, and she will be asking all venues and businesses across the country to adopt it.

Venues will be asked to establish and enforce minimum safety standards for all patrons, employees, contractors, artists, and crews in collaboration with gardaí and bodies such as the Irish Nightclub Industry Association, the Licensed Vintners Association, the Irish Hotels Federation, and the National Taxi Drivers Union.

The charter will include a zero-tolerance policy for perpetrators of any acts of sexual violence or harassment in venues and at events. This means denying entry or requiring people to leave a venue for both microaggressions and more serious acts of violence

“This is something that the night-time economy would sign up to, so everywhere from your bars, your clubs, your late-night venues, it would include theatres and would include anything that’s open beyond a certain point,” Ms McEntee has told the Irish Examiner.

“It would be for patrons, but also for people working in the sector, and the arts community — so people who are musicians, people who are artists, people who are in that space.”

Specific actions will be included in the much anticipated national domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence strategy, which Ms McEntee intends to bring to Cabinet and publish in the coming weeks.

This includes an action to make workplaces safer, including music and entertainment venues, reducing opportunities for sexual and gender-based violence.