Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald has backed calls for the Government to find €1m to fund implementation of a 2002 national sexual abuse report, saying a “large-scale” review of the scale of the problem is “worthwhile”.

Almost 700 men and women attended the six sexual assault treatment units across the country last year.

Hospital experts will be able to take and retain forensic evidence of rape with the consent of a victim who is not yet ready or willing to report the attack to gardaí.

BARNARDOS, the children’s charity, has had to close some of its waiting lists to new referrals until after Christmas because of pressure on services.

As a nine-year-old child, Anne Kelly would lie in bed at night terrified that a baby was about to burst through her belly button.

The first group of specialist nurses qualified to forensically examine victims of rape graduated today.

LEADING support group One in Four has urged people to be on alert for possible depression in sex abuse survivors during the Dublin Diocese report furore, after two suicides were confirmed in the wake of the Ryan Report revelations.

A date will be set this month for the sentencing of Dublin football star Diarmuid Connolly over an unprovoked attack in which a man suffered a fractured eye-socket.

Christmas time can trigger a rise in the frequency and severity of abuse against women and children.

Rape crisis groups say a change of attitude is needed in the courts and among the public towards victims of sexual violence and their treatment in trials.

A HELPLINE for abuse victims has fielded a month’s worth of calls in seven hours following the publication of the damning report into institutional child abuse.

RECORDED crime figures have fallen in all categories for the first time since quarterly figures were produced by the CSO in 2006.

The number of rape prosecutions in Irish courts halved in the past six years, despite evidence that rape is on the increase. We are clearly losing that battle.

The campaign called #100Consent — a play on the phrase "100%" — aims to send a clear message that being even 1% unsure when it comes to sexual consent could have devastating consequences.

A CANDLE flame flickered in front of framed photographs of murdered Swiss teenager Manuela Riedo as her parents launched a new foundation for rape and sexual assault victims in Dublin yesterday.

"You have a right to say no and a right to move comfortably throughout the world without being sexually harassed."

A rally to protest against victim blaming is to take place in Cork city centre on Wednesday following a recent case in the Central Criminal Court where a barrister representing a man in a rape trial said that the jury should reflect on the underwear worn by a teenage girl.