Government set to carry out first national sexual violence report in 15 years
Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan is to bring a proposal to Cabinet in the next two weeks on a second national study on sexual violence.
The last SAVI report was published over 15 years ago in 2002.
The National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) has welcomed the announcement saying it is long overdue.
It says that data collection and analysis around domestic and sexual violence is at crisis point.
"The world has changed a lot since the last national survey on sexual violence was published in 2002," Orla O'Connor, Director of NWCI said in a statement published on the organisation's website today.
"Men are increasingly using technology to control, intimidate and abuse women, with online harassment and abuse of women becoming more prevalent.
"This report will be crucial in establishing the nature and extent of sexual violence in Ireland."
She said that appropriate data is necessary in order to protect women and punish perpetrators accordingly.
Ms O'Connor said that it is not acceptable or sustainable to rely on EU surveys and work research carried out by "under resourced frontline support services and non-governmental organisations" to provide the picture of domestic and sexual abuse in Ireland.
"The Minister for Justice must outline a specific timeline for the study, and it is crucial that its scope includes the nature and extent of intimate partner sexual violence.
"To reduce sexual violence against women, we first need to understand the scale of the problem."
