{"id":541292,"date":"2026-07-09T16:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T16:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/541292\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T16:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T16:47:08","slug":"ireland-becoming-desensitised-to-violence-against-women-oireachtas-told-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/541292\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland \u2018becoming desensitised\u2019 to violence against women, Oireachtas told \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland is becoming \u201cdesensitised\u201d to violence against women, and particularly femicide, the Oireachtas was told on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Representatives from the University of Galway and Dundalk Institute of Technology appeared before the Oireachtas committee on higher education to detail their approach to sexual violence policies and procedures. <\/p>\n

Helen Maher, vice-president for equality, diversity and inclusion at the University of Galway, said \u201cjoined-up thinking\u201d between State agencies \u201cseems somewhat absent\u201d when addressing sexual violence on higher-education campuses.<\/p>\n

Dundalk Institute of Technology\u2019s Siobhan Molloy, who is charged with ending sexual violence and harassment on campus, said just 12 per cent of women \u201cspeak out and report\u201d instances of sexual violence committed against them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey feel they won\u2019t be believed if they do,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re afraid of what will happen after it\u2019s disclosed, that they\u2019ll face shame and blame within their social groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maher said the University of Galway has seen a 114 per cent increase in reports of sexual violence since 2024.<\/p>\n

Niamh Kavanagh, the university\u2019s sexual violence and harassment prevention and response manager, said there was a distinction between a disclosure and a report.<\/p>\n

\u201cA report is the initial stage of our formal process … while a disclosure is telling someone within our university community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Photo of UCD student \u2018nude, bruised and unconscious\u2019 was shared with students and staff, TD tells D\u00e1ilOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Once a report is received, the university initiates a welfare check and risk assessment with the complainant, before a \u201cpreliminary evaluation group\u201d meets to discuss the then-anonymised report.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s anonymised so as not to be biased in any way, which was a concern from students that staff may be treated differently,\u201d Kavanagh said. <\/p>\n

The university then hires an external investigation team through a normal procurement process, typically between three companies. <\/p>\n

The rise in reports is \u201cone measure of success\u201d of the anti-sexual violence policy introduced in 2024, Kavanagh said.<\/p>\n

An internal investigation is paused in the event of a Garda investigation being initiated, she said, adding \u201cnot all victim\/survivors of sexual violence want to go through a criminal investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that the Department of Justice and garda\u00ed are aware of the work we\u2019re doing … sometimes I\u2019m not sure if they\u2019re exactly clear on our role in this,\u201d Kavanagh said.<\/p>\n

Clarissa DiSantis, an education and training lead at the University of Galway\u2019s Active Consent programme, said: \u201cOur community actually tolerates sexual violence really quite well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not enough to ask perpetrators \u2018do you know the legal definition of consent?\u2019 Because they do. They know. We have to create a society that says sexual violence isn\u2019t tolerated here.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know people don\u2019t wake up one day and decide to rape someone. It\u2019s the culmination of a structural process across society.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Rape, groping, and \u2018revenge porn\u2019: Sexual disclosures by UCD studentsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland is becoming \u201cdesensitised\u201d to violence against women, and particularly femicide, the Oireachtas was told on Thursday. Representatives…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84268,61,60,43,5761],"class_list":["post-541292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dundalk-institute-of-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-university-of-galway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}