Local Senator Nicky McFadden has said that she is outraged at the delay in opening Mullingar’s Sexual Assault Treatment Unit, speaking after the news that the chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop did not know why the unit, along with the Galway unit, was not open.
“There was tremendous fanfare when Minister Harney first announced the opening of the centre in Mullingar and in Galway. As far as we understood every system was in place, I can’t understand it,” she said.“The money was ringfenced. I want to know whether the money has been spent elsewhere.”
She went on to say that she will be raising the issue in the Senate next week. “It was only revealed this week that there is a delay in the opening of the Mullingar Sexual Assault Treatment Unit. The outrageous thing is that Minister of State with responsibility for Equality, John Moloney, doesn’t even know what’s happeneing. It should have been set in stone.”
Last summer the HSE announced a major expansion of its Sexual Assault Treatment Unit. The new treatment units was set to be based at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Mullingar. Funding of €1.5m was being made available in 2007, with €2.5m for every subsequent year, for both the Mullingar and Galway units.
Currently there are four units nationwide, at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, the South Infirmary in Cork, and Waterford and Donegal (Letterkenny ) Regional Hospitals.
The additional units will provide high-quality care and forensic support to people who have been the victims of sexual assault and will assist in bringing the perpetrators of sexual crimes to justice.
A 2007 report by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre pointed to a rise in the numbers of recent rapes. Their Sexual Assault Treatment Unit accompaniment service was called out 315 times in 2006, an increase of 20 per cent from 2005, whilst first-time callers to their national 24-hour helpline were up by 10 per cent from 3,849 in 2005 to 4,266 in 2006.
