Peadar Tóibín
Question:1307. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Justice the number of persons arrested for rape or sexual assault in each county in the State in each of the past ten years in tabular form. [2191/22]
View answerWednesday, 19 January 2022
Questions (1307)
Written answers
I can assure the Deputy that this Government is deeply committed to tackling sexual violence and sexual crime in all its forms.
Working to ensure that victims feel empowered to report sexual crimes and that when they do, they are fully supported at every stage of their interaction with our justice system, has been a priority for me as Minister for Justice.
Building the confidence of victims is a cornerstone of the actions set out in Supporting a Victim’s Journey . The implementation of this important action plan is continuing and I am glad to inform the Deputy that a number of key actions have already been delivered including:
- Legislating for the introduction of preliminary trial hearings which will reduce delay and disruption that might re-traumatise victims;
- The completion of the nationwide rollout of Divisional Protective Services Units (DPSUs);
- The first cohort of staff at a new sexual offences unit in the Director of Public Prosecutions office formally took up their roles in April;
- Work to advance the training for all personnel who come into contact with vulnerable victims is underway;
- The University of Limerick has been commissioned by the Department to develop the framework for the operation and training of intermediaries.
- A review of the supports and funding of civil society organisations providing frontline services to victims of sexual offences was conducted to identify where gaps may exist and how to bridge them and additional funding has been provided to a number of organisations to do so.
In relation to the specific information sought by the Deputy on the number of persons arrested for rape or sexual assault in each county in the State in each of the past ten years, I have sought this information from An Garda Síochána and it is presented in the table below.
A search of the PULSE database was conducted on 13 January 2022 for prisoner logs associated with incidents of the type ‘Rape of a Female’, ‘Rape Section 4’ or ‘Sexual Assault’ where the arrest or entry date is within the period 01/01/2011 to 31/12/21.
*Less than 10
Additional Information
Incident data is based upon operational data from the PULSE system as was available at 01:00 on 13/01/2022 and is liable to change. This is a count of prisoner logs created rather than unique persons arrested. A person may have been arrested more than once within a given year.