Young Fine Gael will today call for the provision of new sexual assault treatment units to treat and forensically examine victims of rape and sexual assault.
At Young Fine Gael's eighth summer school, which takes place in Tralee, Co Kerry, this weekend, there will also be calls for extra funding for existing units.
Just four sexual assault treatment units - in Cork, Letterkenny, Waterford and Dublin - served a population of almost 4.3 million, Young Fine Gael president Elizabeth Munnelly said last night. Of these, only the Cork unit at the South Infirmary/Victoria Hospital was funded from the Department of Health, with the others depending on a variety of funding measures.
The lack of provision of adequate numbers of units and the lack of funding for the existing ones acted as a deterrent to victims in reporting crime, Ms Munnelly said.
"There can also be up to a 12-hour delay between the time rape/sexual assault is reported and the victim is seen for a forensic examination," she said.
Ms Munnelly also referred to the decrease in rape and sexual assault cases brought to trial - down from 130 in 1999 to just 37 in 2004.
Young Fine Gael called for €200,000 in immediate funding for the units currently operating in Waterford, Letterkenny and at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, and for the reopening of the Tralee unit and the provision of new units in Limerick, Galway, Mullingar and in the north-east.
Ms Munnelly said that the party also wanted a higher diploma course in forensic nursing to be introduced in nurse training centres to enable nurses to carry out forensic examinations.
Driver education to reduce the numbers of road traffic accidents will also be discussed at the meeting.