There is a need for a campaign to encourage the reporting of abuse to gardai, that is according to Sinn Féin TD Mairead Farrell.
The Galway West TD’s call comes after a Garda report was revealed at Galway city’s JPC meeting stating that incidents of breaching barring, safety, and protection orders had increased by 82 per cent for the first five months of 2020 compared to the same period last year.
However the report did not disclose the number of sexual assaults recorded in the city because it was feared survivors could be identified due to the low figure.
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While acknowledging the work of the gardai and abuse and refuge services provided by charities around Galway, Deputy Farrell said the city’s JPC should devise a campaign which highlights and encourages survivors to come forward and report to the gardai.
Deputy Farrell said; “At the start of lockdown there was a major concern among abuse and refuge services such as COPE that people who were at risk or suffering from domestic abuse would be unable to contact those services as they would be stuck in the same household as their abuser. The increase in the breaching of barring, safety, and protection orders is frightening and a very serious issue.
'A survey by NUI Galway found only three per cent of students who say they were sexually assaulted in college took their complaint to the Gardaí'
“Galway JPC should come out, be it with a campaign or another initiative, and encourage survivors to report their complaint to the gardai because while Galway gardai do enforce a very good callback service, where they make contact with a complainant again within seven days of a reporting, the fact is, not everyone makes a complaint.
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“This is evidenced by the survey by NUI Galway which found only three percent of students who say they were sexually assaulted in college took their complaint to the Gardaí as well as the low number of sexual assaults recorded [in the city]. Because of the low figure, it is all the more important we need to have it published in order to encourage reporting because survivors need to go to the gardai.”
Monday’s meeting which was held over Zoom also divulged that the number of domestic incidents recorded where the offence was not disclosed was 135 so far this year.
