OPINION: We have to make it as easy as possible for rape victims to

ALMOST all rape and sexual assault victims share one terrible common factor. New research shows that almost eight out of ten of all rape and sexual assault victims know their attacker.

By any measure this is a terrible feat-ure of these attacks - because this fact makes it even more difficult to encourage the victims to come forward to seek help to overcome their trauma.

It can take years for a victim to find the strength they desperately need to seek help. Many of the clients of the marvellous network of rape crisis centres have only found the ability within themselves to come forward in later years to seek the counselling they need and deserve.

The heinous crime of rape is a tragedy visited on the victims. To compound the crime, imagine how much more difficult and tortuous it is to struggle to seek help when the victim knows the perpetrator of the crime?

Think then of their fear - fear of the perpetrator and fear that they may not be believed.

We need to encourage victims to come forward to seek help to overcome the trauma.

DEALING with the issue of rape and sexual assault is by no means an easy task. No one agency has the answers or all the expertise when it comes to ending sexual violence.

As Chairperson of the National Steering Committee on Violence Against Women, I recognise the need for a cohesive response to victims of these crimes - indeed that is one of the tasks set for the National Steering Committee.

Through our public awareness campaigns we try to encourage victims to access services, to give a clear message to perpetrators that violence is a crime and must stop and to educate the general public that they should not condone violence and further marginalise the victim.

It is very important that we do not say or do anything that may inhibit a person from coming forward to seek help.

The National Steering Committee has looked at research in the area of sexual violence. This research contains a number of reasons why there so many victims fail to come forward and makes recommend- ations on how this might be combated.

It points out that victims:

fear they may not be believed

say the fact that they knew the assailant may lead people to assume they had a relationship with the perpetrator

fear the judicial process and cross-examination in court

fear the sort of response that they received from the person to whom they first reported the assault.

We will continue to study the recommendations of the report and see how best they can be achieved. It is very important that research of this nature does not go unnoticed or be left on a shelf.

We have to act for the people who need us to be proactive so that they can gain their lives back with dignity and justice.

Research in this area is important because it can bring about a situation whereby it is possible to make correct progress based on real information and knowledge.

For this reason I am delighted that I have contracted research which will assess current service delivery, identify gaps in service provision and also develop models of best practice.

I hope to be able to establish specific details of where current services may need to be expanded or additional services are required in order to best serve the victims of violence.

This Fianna Fail-led Government is committed to improving services in this area. Since the establishment of National Steering Committee in 1997, we have seen the money available for service provision increase from pounds 3million - pounds 8.3million.

WE NEED to ensure that this increase in funding is mirrored in the appropriate delivery of services to victims and also that new and additional services are established and resourced.

I am confident that this research will allow us to do exactly that, and I am committed to the delivery of these services.

It is vital that we take into consideration the needs of victims. As part of the research, they will be consulted and their views expressed within the report and taken into consideration when the recommendations are being developed.

The committee recognises that we cannot lose sight of a victim's needs when developing responses. The research will also develop models of best practice for working with children, monitoring and evaluation, inter-agency work, and intervention programmes with perpetrators.

I am confident that we can build on this latest body of research to provide the best possible service to rape and sexual assault victims. We, as a society, owe them that.

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