Good afternoon all.
I’m delighted to be here to launch the new premises for the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.
Thank you Ellen for inviting me.
This is a very proud day for you all. And rightly so.
Because today, you take stock of your magnificent work in raising funds to secure this building for the future of your organisation.
I hope you will be lucky, happy and successful here and that you will go on making the change - and being the change - in the lives of so many men and women.
Your work and your commitment are exemplary. Not alone in the staff, but in the volunteers, who have always been the beating heart of the Dublin Rape Crisis.
And within that strong, compassionate environment, quiet yet listening, you have held thousands of men and women, keeping them safe while they came to terms with their shattering experience.
With you they can start to heal; they can start to put their broken lives back together.
In 1978, Summer Night, Baker Street and the Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever were playing on the radio.
In that same year, thousands of Irish women marched through Dublin to protest against rape.
These women set out to change how they and their sisters were regarded and treated in this country.
But that march led to the setting up of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. From 70 calls in the first year to 12,000 calls in 2014 - obviously there was no going back.
Recent statistics published by the CSO show that rape and sexual assault continue to stalk and torture our society.
Rape is always an outrage. An outrage that is always devastating.
Devastating for the victims and for those who love them.
That is why we must always make it clear to victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence that they will always be listened to, they will be respected and they will be minded.
People who have experienced such horrors often say they feel marooned, they feel cut off from their inner lives and the outer lives they were living.
They can say too that they not just remember, but in some cases actually relive the experience - over and over.
For them and for those who love them, it is a harrowing experience.
But often with you they take the first steps towards disclosing this violence against them, and in the process make the first steps to recovery.
Your support can also lead them to report the sexual violence against them to An Garda Síochána.
As you know more than most, bringing to account those who rape is and must be an absolute priority. There is a lot of work underway to make this happen.
And the government has taken particular care to strengthen our response to sexual violence.
In society the message is going out that when it comes to sex, no is unequivocal.
No always means No. When it comes to rape or consent there is no ‘but you know’ or ‘maybe’.
The government is playing its part in its own way also. As you know, Ireland recently signed the Istanbul Convention, the Council of Europe’s Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.
The second National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence is currently being finalised and envisages a range of actions to be implemented by State, voluntary and community sector organisations.
Also, legislation is being prepared to give effect to the recent EU Victims Directive. When enacted, this legislation will give all victims of crime an entitlement to information about the system and their case, and supports, and special measures during investigation and court proceedings if necessary. This is an important support for the victims of sexual violence, given the trauma that they suffer, and the added distress that proceeding with a complaint through the criminal justice process often causes them.
I’m aware of the recent successful collaboration between the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, the Union of Students in Ireland and the White Ribbon Campaign in raising awareness around the issue of sexual consent with the #AskConsent campaign which is supported by funding from Cosc – the National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence.
Túsla, the Child and Family Agency, plays a key role in supporting the provision of domestic, sexual and gender based violence services, and has appointed a national manager to ensure a single line of accountability for all resources in this important area. We give Túsla great powers in this area and also equally great responsibility.
Your own ‘responsibility’ as the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, your presence and witness and healing in the lives of so many never ends.
For that we thank you and we depend on you.
I wish you every success and good fortune here in these premises.
And I wish every one of you and everyone who comes here every happiness this Christmas and in the New Year ahead.