Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-30
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Ruth Coppinger (PBP), Dublin West

As the Tánaiste knows, 7,000 students marched in UCD at the beginning of March in support and solidarity with a student who had been drugged, raped, had image-based sexual abuse used against her and, unfortunately, became pregnant and lost her place on her course. I know the Tánaiste is well aware of the issues. It was very positive, in an era of an epidemic of gender-based violence and where the manosphere is being promoted, to see all genders and students there. They wanted justice for this student and they wanted her reinstated onto the course. They also wanted an end to the multiple sharing of image-based sexual abuse. Unfortunately, those things have not happened. The student has not successfully been reinstated and there have been further images of image-based sexual abuse. The Government's role in this is that it has a duty to make colleges safe and to have good procedures and practices by authorities.
I want to raise the academic issues first, and getting this student back to her dream of becoming a doctor and allowing her to salvage something from this horrific trauma. It has been a month since the dean of medicine responded to the medical student after the talks that took place. She was assured they would reply after Easter but that has not happened. This is going against the thousands who marched and is also a rebuke to that student who put her faith in the process. As she said to me, it was difficult and upsetting to be let down and then have to re-engage. We have an unprecedented situation here and an unprecedented response is called for. I know there are issues with academic qualifications and I am absolutely not saying this is straightforward but I ask the Minister to intervene with the college even more directly, and I know he met the student. It is absolutely vital we do not have a rapist continuing on and the rape victim being the one who suffers.
I also want to mention the culture in UCD. A number of people were emailed this image again, not on the UCD server but to people connected with the protest and the president herself. President Feely was sent this image since this was raised publicly. This person is clearly saying "F you" to everybody else - the brazenness of it. However, this comes from the top because the UCD legal team characterised a rape disclosure as dropping a bombshell. Those were the words it were used. This 21-year-old was crying on the stand. When she reported text messages she received last year, she was told she might be better to continue her studies in a different college year. These ideas are coming from the top. A medical student wrote to me about the dean of medicine coming into the college, putting up a big QR code in the lecture hall and going through what happened in the court. This student said to me it bordered on victim-blaming and it was shocking to see somebody talking about a rape victim like that. We have real problems still in our colleges.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-30