‘Donegal children as young as 12’ are now contacting Rape Crisis Centre

Independent TD for Donegal Thomas Pringle said Donegal Domestic Violence Services receives five to six new calls every week for their services, some from children as young as 12.

He added that women in every corner of this country have experienced gender-based violence.

Addressing the Dáil, Deputy Pringle said: “Women in this country have been failed over and over again, by our judicial system, by our health system, by our education system, by the defence forces and by us, as legislators.

“Each day we fail to address the rise in gender-based violence, in misogynistic views and in male supremacist content online, we fail women all over again.

“Reports of gender-based violence seem to be a daily occurrence in this country. News outlets rarely go a week without reporting multiple stories of gender-based violence, stories so horrifying that it is sickening to know that they only reflect a small percentage of this epidemic.

“My heart breaks for these women, what they were forced to go through and how often they are expected to relive it.”

The deputy was speaking on the Labour Motion re Gender-Based Violence.

“Sadly there is no safe place to be a woman,” he said. “Women in every corner of this country have experienced gender-based violence. In my constituency, the Donegal Domestic Violence Service receives five to six new calls every week from people seeking access to their services. They say they work with ‘an average of 100 families each month to offer support with court, child access, accessing homeless supports and providing emotional one-to-one support for victims of domestic abuse.’

“I have, on multiple occasions in this chamber, raised the fact that the Donegal Rape Crisis Centre has had to apply for funding from the RTÉ Toy Show Appeal so that they could reduce the age of access to their services from 14 to 12 because of the high demand for services for younger people.

“This year, they will receive €16,000 from the appeal for therapies for 12- to 18-year-olds affected by the trauma of sexual violence.

“It is devastating that in Donegal children as young as 12 are now contacting the centre, reporting incidents of sexual violence, and in many cases the offending party is of a similar age. This shows that not only is there a rise in young people experiencing sexual violence, but there is a rise in young people perpetrating sexual violence as well. This is incredibly upsetting.

“We need to talk to our young boys and men directly about this, because this problem lies with them. We cannot continue to put this burden on women. It lies with us men to deal with it.

“I agree that this can be addressed, to some extent, through our education system. However, I don’t believe this alone will adequately tackle this issue. So often in this country, we focus solely on policy and legislation, yet forget the most important step: implementation. And I think this House is very good at that as well.

“We can’t vaguely state that it’s the responsibility of schools. We need to be active and analytical in addressing this issue. We all play a role in addressing gender-based violence.”

“Why does the government refuse to demand transparency from social media companies about their algorithms, which we know are contributing to this rise in misogyny?

“We all need to take accountability here and look much deeper if we are serious about tackling gender-based violence,” he said, adding, “These issues have to be dealt with everywhere – in the workplace, in social environments, and right across the board.”