Other Members’ Questions

I raise a profound issue of importance to survivors of sexual assault and rape across Tipperary, Clare and Limerick, namely, the absence of a sexual assault treatment unit for the mid-west. There are six dedicated sexual assault treatment units in the country. They are in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Donegal, Mullingar and Waterford but the mid-west is a glaring omission. Instead we have a forensic medical examination service. It operates from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Monday to Friday and 24-7 at the weekends, but that means that between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on a week day there is no access to this local service. The disadvantage goes much further than opening hours. Unlike a dedicated sexual assault treatment unit, the mid-west forensic medical examination service requires a survivor to make a report to the Garda before access to a forensic examination. At a sexual assault treatment unit elsewhere in the county, a survivor can access the examination without first having to decide whether to go to the Garda in the aftermath of an assault. A sexual assault treatment unit also brings forensic examination, immediate medical care, STI screening and psychological support together under one roof. In the mid-west these elements are not provided for in the same integrated way. We need to consider what this means for someone who has just experienced a sexual assault. They may be traumatised, frightened and uncertain about what to do next. Instead of accessing immediate specialist care locally, they may face hours of waiting or travelling to get to a sexual assault treatment unit. I represent Tipperary North but this is an issue for the entire mid-west. At the moment, if people from the region want to get to a sexual assault treatment unit – and gardaí generally want them to go to one – they have to choose Cork or Galway. Local gardaí in my constituency have told me that if someone appears in the station following an assault or a rape, gardaí will, if they can, drive that individual to Galway. This is sensitive but talking to people after an assault, they are told that if they want the best treatment in the best centre, they have to go there immediately without changing their clothes or having a shower. It is a horrible thing to have to discuss with someone, but that is what they are facing because they cannot get that service in Limerick. This is not about seeking preferential treatment for the mid-west, but about equality of healthcare, dignity and basic access for specialist services. A survivor of sexual assault should not face obstacles to timely, compassionate and comprehensive care and dignity on the basis of their eircode or address. I am asking the Government to intervene. I have repeatedly, through parliamentary questions, asked it to intervene and I am raising the issue again today. Will the Government establish a sexual assault treatment unit in the mid-west?

Hear, hear.

I thank Deputy O'Meara for raising this important issue. I know the Minister for Health will join me in this. While he proudly represents Tipperary North, the Deputy is quite right to say this is an issue for the region and for the country in terms of how we properly respond to the needs of victims and survivors of sexual assault, and also to the criminal justice piece in terms of the preservation of evidence and the like and the important role our sexual assault treatment units, SATUs, play in this. I remember when I was Minister for Health doing a piece with Dr. Maeve Eogan in the Rotunda. She did very good work in relation to this at the initial iteration of the women's health task force. There were six SATUs around the country at the time - in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Mullingar, Letterkenny and Waterford - and they responded to 900-plus cases annually. Unfortunately, this number is rising year on year. That review made a number of changes to protect victims, many of which have been implemented and progressed in the intervening years. They include a rapid responder on-call rota so that forensic examiners can travel to support patients in their local unit, a roll-out of more frequent and flexible modular units, interprofessional training and a pipeline of qualified staff. There are no two ways about it. What the Deputy has identified is true. While are SATUs are distributed nationally, with the aim of providing access within that universal three-hour window, and while patients in the mid-west can access Cork or Galway, the Deputy is right to outline the impact having to travel a longer distance can have on somebody who has experienced the most horrific crime. He has described that situation very well. This is something the Minister for Health wants to make progress on and I want to work with her on it. There is a scoping report for proposed development of a dedicated SATU service in the mid-west. It has been finalised and submitted to the regional clinical director. I believe the mid-west region of the HSE convened a multidisciplinary working group - it had representatives of HSE primary care services in the mid-west, the primary care team, the regional rape crisis service and HSE social inclusion - to scope potential models for the mid-west. The report will be considered by the regional clinical director and we will need to work together on next steps, looking at things like relevant governance and approval processes. I recognise the importance of the role our sexual assault treatment units play and the point the Deputy makes about the mid-west region. The overarching objective is to ensure all survivors of rape and sexual assault have timely access to high-quality, specialist, trauma-informed care delivered with compassion, dignity and, as the Deputy says, regardless of geographical location. The Government will continue to work with the Deputy on this issue and I know the Minister for Health will work with him on it too.

I thank the Tánaiste and the Minister for Health for their work on this. I have consistently raised this, particularly through parliamentary questions, pretty much this entire calendar year. I can see from the responses and from the Tánaiste's response today that we are seeing some progress, most definitely. I first raised it on 17 February through a parliamentary question and there was quite a bad response from the HSE, which was that, no, it was not going to do it. I asked two further questions on 4 March. I asked questions on 26 March, 14 April, 28 April, when I asked ten questions, 28 May, 9 July, 14 July, 7 September and 15 October. Each time we have got more data. The data is now on the record for people who have gone to Cork, Galway, Waterford or the forensic unit in Limerick but that only shows historical numbers and figures. There are people behind those but there are so many people out there who do not go anywhere, particularly because we do not have an SATU in Limerick. We need one for them.

I thank the Deputy. No one can doubt the huge amount of work he has done and his commitment to this issue. I want him to know, as I know he does, that the Minister for Health, who is here with me, is also deeply committed to making progress on better supporting victims and survivors of sexual assault from a healthcare point of view and on how that feeds into the whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to zero tolerance of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. The Deputy identified a real and pertinent issue. I thank all stakeholders in the mid-west region for the work they have done in getting things to this point. I suggest, on foot of the Deputy raising this again today, that we keep the lines of communication open. The Minister will continue to work through this and we all have to support her in the next steps.