George Lawlor: Urges More Women's Refuges and Privacy in Trials
George Lawlor spoke in support of a motion on domestic and sexual violence services, urging expanded refuge provision and protections for complainants' counselling and medical records. He drew on his experience as a director and voluntary board member of Wexford Women's Refuge and demanded an end to accused persons' access to counselling records.
He thanked Deputy Kopter for bringing the motion and welcomed guests in the public gallery, opening his remarks by expressing support for the proposals before the House.
He described his roles as a member of the Voluntary Board of Management, director and five-year chair of the building subgroup of Wexford Women's Refuge. He recounted opening a new state-of-the-art building last year in the heart of Wexford Town that tripled the refuge's capacity and detailed services including outreach, court accompaniment and access to counselling.
He highlighted close working relationships with Wexford's Rape Crisis Centre and agencies such as Barnardo's, Youth New Ross and the HSE, and noted that an in-house child and family support worker is among the highly skilled staff available to vulnerable women and children.
He warned that refuge staff are frequently overwhelmed and struggle to meet demand. He said County Wexford is fortunate to have a refuge, while noting that nine counties - Cavan, Carlow, Leish, Leitrim, Longford, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon and Sligo - have no domestic violence refuge accommodation. Wexford receives multiple requests from outside the county and often operates at capacity despite the recent expansion.
He cited figures in the motion that only 5% of adults who experience sexual violence reported it to the Gardaí and that an estimated 14% of those cases reach trial. He recounted survivors' harrowing experiences of the legal system and condemned the ability of the accused to request complainants' counselling records. He urged an end to that practice and called for support of the Citizens' Assembly on gender equality 2021 recommendation to exclude counselling and medical records from evidence.
Support and welcome
He thanked Deputy Kopter for bringing the motion and welcomed guests in the public gallery, opening his remarks by expressing support for the proposals before the House.
Wexford Women's Refuge experience
He described his roles as a member of the Voluntary Board of Management, director and five-year chair of the building subgroup of Wexford Women's Refuge. He recounted opening a new state-of-the-art building last year in the heart of Wexford Town that tripled the refuge's capacity and detailed services including outreach, court accompaniment and access to counselling.
Partnerships and specialist staff
He highlighted close working relationships with Wexford's Rape Crisis Centre and agencies such as Barnardo's, Youth New Ross and the HSE, and noted that an in-house child and family support worker is among the highly skilled staff available to vulnerable women and children.
Service pressures and county shortages
He warned that refuge staff are frequently overwhelmed and struggle to meet demand. He said County Wexford is fortunate to have a refuge, while noting that nine counties - Cavan, Carlow, Leish, Leitrim, Longford, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon and Sligo - have no domestic violence refuge accommodation. Wexford receives multiple requests from outside the county and often operates at capacity despite the recent expansion.
Reporting, trials and counselling records
He cited figures in the motion that only 5% of adults who experience sexual violence reported it to the Gardaí and that an estimated 14% of those cases reach trial. He recounted survivors' harrowing experiences of the legal system and condemned the ability of the accused to request complainants' counselling records. He urged an end to that practice and called for support of the Citizens' Assembly on gender equality 2021 recommendation to exclude counselling and medical records from evidence.
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Transcript
I am pleased to support this motion and I want to thank Deputy Kopter for bringing it forward. I would like to welcome our guests in the public gallery. I want to speak also about the importance of women having access to refuge places. As a member of the Voluntary Board of Management and the Director of Wexford Women's Refuge, I have seen firsthand the benefit of having a refuge in your locality, the benefits of having skilled, compassionate refuge staff available to guide victims through the difficulties and advise them on some of the obstacles and issues highlighted in this motion. For five years I chaired the building subgroup of Wexford Women's Refuge and last year we opened a new state-of-the-art building in the heart of Wexford Town which saw the refuge triple in its capacity. Wexford Women's Refuge also offers outreach services, meeting women in a safe place of their choosing. It offers court accompaniment, access to counselling, working closely with Wexford's Rape Crisis Centre and also agencies like Barnardo's, Youth New Ross and the HSE to name a few of the great services available to the vulnerable women and their children. An in-house child and family support worker is just one of the highly skilled staff available within the refuge. Despite all of this, staff at the refuge are put to the pin of their collar and often find it impossible to keep up with the workload and demands on the service. And yet, County Wexford can consider itself lucky to be in a position to actually have a refuge. Sadly, nine counties in this country have no domestic violence refuge accommodation. Cavan, Carlow, Leish, Leitrim, Longford, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon and Sligo are devoid of refuge accommodation. Wexford gets multiple requests from outside the county for accommodation and are almost constantly operating a capacity despite last year's tripling of their accommodation. So can you imagine the feeling of isolation the women in these counties feel in the knowledge that within their communities and their locality there is no safe haven of a refuge. As this motion states, only 5% of those who experience sexual violence as an adult reported it to Gardaí. And of these, it is estimated that just 14% make it to trial. The victims and survivors of sexual violence have spoken about their harrowing experience of the legal system. And ludicrously, the accused has the ability to request access to counselling records of complainants. We must put an end to this absolutely invasive and traumatic allowance to perpetrators. And we must support the call from the Citizens' Assembly on gender equality in 2021 for the exclusion of counselling and medical records from evidence. It is the very least we can do to support the victims of this heinous crime. Thank you Deputy.