Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 24 Jan 1995

Vol. 447 No. 11

Adjournment Debate. - Cork Rape Crisis Centre Funding.

Miss Quill

I wish to thank the Chair for selecting this topic for debate this evening. In this short debate I want to draw attention specifically to the funding crisis being experienced by the Cork Rape Crisis Centre. That centre which was established in 1983 now employs one part-time co-ordinator, two administration assistants and two trained counsellors.

I will give a brief summary of the workload of the centre.

In the first nine months of 1994 the centre received 431 telephone calls, all from victims of rape, child abuse or those speaking on behalf of people abused in one way or another. Their misery would be multiplied 100 times over were it not for the comprehensive service provided by the Cork Rape Crisis Centre. Of the 431 callers, some were given ongoing counselling within the centre, after initial counselling more were referred to other agencies or professions, but all were helped in some way. It is interesting to note that, as might sometimes be assumed, not all of those assisted by the centre were women; there were approximately 30 calls from men in that period.

In addition, the Cork centre holds workshops, particularly for second level students; 60 such workshops were organised in Cork last year. The centre sees those workshops as an important element in alerting young people to the best ways of protecting themselves against or dealing with, assaults. This will help to minimise the number of assaults on young people — to be forewarned is often to be forearmed. Those workshops are a valuable part of the work provided by the centre.

Despite the value, scope and nature of the service, in the last financial year the centre was allocated only £24,500. Not only was that vastly less than that required to maintain and run the services but it was considerably less than the amount granted to other rape crisis centres in smaller cities. For example, it was £1,500 less than the amount allocated to Galway — a centre with a smaller workload because of a smaller population — it was £1,500 less than that allocated to Limerick and it was even less than that allocated to Tralee and that raises other questions. The Minister of State should note the injustice of the amount of funding allocated to the Cork centre.

I appeal to him to ensure that adequate funding is provided for the centre in the forthcoming budget and that the comprehensive submission made by the Cork Rape Crisis Centre to the Department of Health is thoroughly studied by his Department and fully responded to. The centre estimates that it will need a minimum of £72,000 in 1995 to enable it to maintain and carry on its work. I urge the Minister of State to ensure that figure is voted through for the purpose I outlined and that there will be no delay in making the payment available. The voluntary input to the centre is fundamental. If the State had to carry out the workload of the centre on its own, the bill would be much higher than £72,000. I appeal to the Minister of State for a positive reply.

Minister of State at the Department of Health (Mr. O'Shea)

On behalf of my colleague, Deputy Noonan, Minister for Health, I thank Deputy Quill for raising this matter and for providing an opportunity to clarify issues on the funding of Cork Rape Crisis Centre.

Prior to 1991, funding for rape crisis centres came from a number of sources with funding being uncertain from year to year. The unsatisfactory nature of these arrangements was recognised and following a Government decision in July 1991, funding for the centres was channelled through the health boards from the Department's national lottery allocation.

The Second Commission on the Status of Women in its report published in 1993 recommended that the existing rape crisis centres be given secure multiannual funding on a contractual basis such as health boards already provided to voluntary bodies for some community and family planning functions; where a regional rape crisis centre does not exist, the health boards in question should establish one, staffed by persons with appropriate expertise; and all rape crisis centres and health boards should maintain regular close liaison with a view to implementing the most appropriate and sympathetic policies for the victims of sexual assault; it is also important that rape crisis centres should network with each other.

In 1994, funding to the rape crisis centres and counselling centres directly from the Department of Health, largely from the Department's national lottery allocation, was £458,500 which represented an increase of 77 per cent on the figure of £258,500 for 1993. In addition to this lottery funding, the health boards provided £198,570 to the centres in 1994 from within their revenue allocations. In 1994 the Cork Rape Crisis Centre received more than £28,000 from these sources.

On the basis of submissions received in 1994 and in recognition of the increased level of work undertaken, funding was increased to some of the counselling centres including Limerick, Galway and Tralee. As no submissions were received from the Cork Rape Crisis Centre in 1994, its level of funding was maintained at the 1993 level and was assumed to be adequate for the service which the centre provided. At no stage after the allocation of funding in 1994 did the Cork Rape Crisis Centre indicate to the Southern Health Board or to my Department that it had financial problems. During the recent Cork by-election, there were press reports that the centre was underfunded. In response, my Department advised the centre that if it considered itself underfunded, it should make a submission to the Southern Health Board and the Minister for Health, making a case for additional funding in 1995.

I am happy to report that the Cork centre submitted a report to the Minister late last week. It will be considered in the light of the recommendations of the commission and in the context of service provision and resource availability in consultation with the Southern Health Board, in whose functional area the Cork Rape Crisis Centre lies.

I assure the Deputy that the Minister and I are committed to the implementation of the recommendations of the report of the Second Commission on the Status of Women. The Minister for Health, Deputy Noonan will examine the future funding of all rape crisis centres in the light of the resources available in 1995 and the commission's recommendations.