Two prominent Catholic Church figures have been appointed to the board of the One in Four charity, which supports people who have been sexually abused. Patsy McGarry reports.
Leadership at the charity has been among the church's foremost critics on its handling of clerical child sex abuse issues.
Emeritus Professor of Moral Theology at St Patrick's College Maynooth, Father Enda McDonagh, and Father Tom Doyle, a US canon lawyer and outspoken critic of the church on clerical child sex abuse, have both agreed to take positions on the charity's board.
Father Doyle will be a specialist advisory member. Father McDonagh was chaplain to former President Mary Robinson and is chairman of UCC's governing body. Also joining the board will be Dr Jane Pillinger, an adviser on gender equality issues.
Mrs Marie Collins has stepped down from the board, while Mr Pat Jackman remains a member.
The appointments were announced by One in Four director Mr Colm O'Gorman yesterday.
He also called on the Government to implement a national strategy to respond to sexual violence and its impact.
Speaking at the launch of the charity's first annual report in Dublin, Mr O'Gorman said that, apart from known victims, up to an estimated 750,000 men and women in Ireland may not have reported or sought support though they had experienced sexual violence.
Quoting from the 2002 report Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland, he said "27 per cent of Irish children have an experience of sexual abuse before the age of 17".
The report was conducted by the Royal College of Surgeons for the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.
Mr O'Gorman said "35 per cent of Irish men and women will experience sexual violence at some point in their lives" and that "1.3 million Irish citizens are living with the legacy of sexual violence, and such abuse has major health and social implications that we have so far failed to address comprehensively".
Though Ireland was already spending "enormous resources on managing and responding to the impacts of sexual violence", the root cause of such difficulties was not being addressed, he said.