FUNDING which was to be made available to counselling services for victims of sexual abuse in the aftermath of the Ryan Report has still not been allocated to support groups one year on from the damning report, it has emerged. Today marks the first anniversary of a report which shocked the nation, chronicling years of systemic abuse of children in state-supervised institutions run by religious orders.
The money is part of a €15m package allocated to implement recommendations of the report, one of which is to provide extra counselling services for victims, and €2m of which was for counselling services.
However, although €1.8m has been allocated to the HSE’s National Counselling Service, both the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) and victim support group One in Four maintain they have received no funding.
Both are now operating long waiting lists and are still "overwhelmed" by the numbers of people seeking professional help.
Ellen O’Malley Dunlop of the DRCC said it had not been allocated any money from the Government, despite a pledge to do so.
Ms O’Malley Dunlop said she believed the money was on the way, but no time frame had been given, or no idea of how much it would be.
"We are told it is coming but we just don’t know. We were also told our funding for 2010 would not be cut, but it was, by 5.8%."
Ms O’Malley Dunlop said the DRCC’s helpline had seen a 40% increase in first-time callers and for the first time in years was operating a waiting list.
"Following the Ryan Report our numbers went through the roof, we were not prepared, it was unprecedented," she said.
Maeve Lewis, head of One in Four, said there was now a nine-month waiting list for victims of abuse to receive one-to-one counselling.
Ms Lewis said the charity’s clients had more than doubled since the report, but frontline services which were struggling to respond had not seen any funding as promised.
She said while the initial surge in the aftermath of the report was expected, it was "alarming" that the number of people seeking counselling had not fallen.
Ms Lewis added it was a "disgrace" that one year on the money still had not been made available.
One in Four appealed for €100,000 in emergency funds as far back as last August, after which Minister for Children Barry Andrews told the group he was "unavailable" to meet them.
A HSE spokesperson said the number of people waiting for the national counselling service fell from 829 in February to 665 in May and that two therapist posts had been filled recently.
* The national 24-hour helpline for the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre is 1800 77 88 88.