Dublin Rape Crisis Centre received nearly €1.3 million in State funding for We-Consent and related consent research and campaigns between 2021 and 2025, the latest year for which accounts are available.
DRCC spent at least €1.5 million on consent projects over that period.
The We-Consent project has become a topic of conversation after it uploaded an advertisement showing a child appearing to be uncomfortable as their grandparents approach for a hug. The advertisement has attracted significant criticism online, both for its content and for the fact it was produced by a publicly funded campaign.
We-Consent is, according to DRCC, a “national campaign to inform, educate and engage with all members of society about consent.” The aim of the project “is to get people in Ireland talking about, and developing a meaningful understanding of, consent.”
Discussions regarding the project began in 2019, with initial research into consent being published in late 2021, with further research in 2022, before We-Consent formally launched in early 2023.
If the project is successful, DRCC says, “we will have grown as a society”.
Between 2021 and 2023 the Department of Justice gave DRCC €923,776 in consent focused grants. State agency Cuan giving €375,535 to the DRCC between 2024 and 2025.
Cuan was set up in January of 2024 as Ireland’s State agency for tackling domestic, sexual and gender-based violence; it’s a statutory body under the Department of Justice.
Between 2021 and 2025, DRCC’s accounts show it received €15 million in State funding. DRCC accounts recorded total income of €20.3 million over the same period.