Irish Examiner view: Minister a survivor of sex assault

Josepha Madigan: It takes great courage to share such a personal story.

THE revelation in the Dáil by a Fine Gael TD that she is a survivor of sexual assault is a stark and powerful reminder of the extent of violence against women in Ireland.

Josepha Madigan’s declaration, during a Dáil debate, that she suffered sexual assault, cannot have come easy, not even to someone used to being in the public eye. It takes great courage to share such a personal story.

Ms Madigan, state minister with responsibility for special education and inclusion, was speaking during statements on action to tackle sexual, domestic, and gender-based violence.

“I am old enough to know that there are very few women my age that have not been subjected to some form of sexual assault and I know this because I am one of them,” the Dublin Rathdown TD said.

It was, as the CEO of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Noeline Blackwell, put it, a significant and important contribution to combatting violence against women.

Also, domestic violence has soared during the pandemic. Ms Madigan later tweeted: “Ever since Covid-19 first arrived on our shores, all of the emerging data and reports are showing a dramatic increase in the many forms of violence against women and children, particularly in the home, a place that is supposed to be a haven, sanctuary, and safe space.”

Indeed, abuse in the home is on the increase. A report last November, by Safe Ireland, the agency representing 37 domestic-violence services, shows that 3,450 women and 589 children who had never previously, as far as is known, contacted a domestic violence help service looked for support and safety from abuse and coercive control during the first six months of Covid-19, from March to August 2020.

Calls to Women’s Aid hotline rose by more than 40% during the lockdown. The charity’s chief executive, Sarah Benson, said women looking for help had disclosed being “beaten, strangled, burned, raped” and of having their lives threatened.

Given the extent of the crisis, Ms Madigan’s intervention will, hopefully, heighten general awareness of this epidemic of abuse. It should also serve as a reminder to the Government that Ireland has far too few refuge places for victims of domestic violence.

It is more than two years since the Government ratified the Istanbul Convention, a human rights treaty drawn up and overseen by the 47-nation Council of Europe. The convention pledges that each signatory country provide adequate refuge accommodation for women fleeing their abusers. Yet the Government continues to provide far fewer refuge spaces than do the authorities in other European countries. Little wonder that women and children had to be turned away from shelters last year.

While there have been changes in law, such as the inclusion of a definition of consent and the recognition of coercive control as a form of domestic abuse, there are still far too few prosecutions and far too few specialised support services provided by the State. If we are serious about tacking violence against women, that has to change.