One in Four today warmly welcomes the announcement by Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan, that the Government has agreed to commission a new survey on the incidence and experience of sexual violence in Ireland.

Executive Director Maeve Lewis says: “The ground breaking SAVI Report was published in 2003 and established that one in four Irish people experienced sexual violence in the course of their lifetimes.  This is still a staggering statistic and is not really accepted by most Irish people.  It is reflected in the fact that organisations like One in Four are always struggling to meet the demand for the specialist services we provide. But SAVI is now 15 years old and has never been replicated.  We need to know if all the attitudinal and legislative changes since then have had an impact in reducing the incidence of sexual violence.  Government needs to have accurate data in order to plan for services but also to understand why sexual violence is the most underreported crime in this society.”

One in Four is delighted that the Central Statistics Office has agreed to undertake this research.  While we would love to have a Report immediately, we understand that such complex research may take up to five years to complete.  However, it is very satisfying that the research will be replicated every ten years afterwards, so that continuous and up to date information will be available to inform legislation and policy into the future.

Maeve Lewis ends: “I hope that this research will show that the incidence of sexual violence has fallen, and that we will be able to change our name from One in Four to One in Five or even One in Six.