Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-05
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Ruth Coppinger (PBP), Dublin West

I hope I will get a bit of extra time for the shock of that.
It is International Women's Day on Sunday and I hope thousands will march all around the country. We will meet at 1 p.m. at City Hall in Dublin, in case anyone would like to join here or in other cities. Yesterday, thousands of students and staff at UCD gathered to show their solidarity with a medical student who was raped, and with all survivors. The Tánaiste is a former Minister for higher education. I ask him to do all in his power to intervene with UCD to see that this student progresses with her medical degree as near as possible to her original graduation date. Is it not wrong that the only person to suffer in this whole debacle is the victim, who was drugged and raped at a medical students' organised event? An image of her was shared, which I saw and it is disgusting. She became pregnant and had to have a termination and then lost out on doing her exams.
This is a pattern with victims in UCD and other colleges. They have to drop out. They have to do their exams online. They have to finish their degrees online and it is a serious issue. I urge the Tánaiste to please ask UCD and its school of medicine to spend more time resolving this than they are spending spinning against this student-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-05