TDs who spoke at a cross-party alliance event last week organised by the Women’s Coalition on Immigration which raised concerns regarding the impact of immigration on levels of violence against women and girls, have hit out at what they say are attempts by the Irish Times to ‘deny reality’.
Independent TD, Carol Nolan, who told the event that Ireland was experiencing “unsustainable and uncosted” levels of immigration, also said that a “blind eye” had been turned to migration being a “contributing factor to violence against women and girls”.
She said that most of the Irish media had chosen to ignore the Women’s Coalition event and the evidence offered, and that she had then today been contacted by Irish Times journalist Ellen Coyne who said that she was writing a piece which would state that “a number of elected representatives attended and supported a campaign that is trying to link immigration with sexual violence in Ireland, despite having no evidence available to show a link between migration and crime in Ireland.”
Ms Coyne also said that the Women’s Coalition on Immigration had tried “to correlate, without evidence, a number of high profile incidents before the courts with a general increase in reports of sexual violence in Ireland.”
The Irish Times political correspondent said that Dublin Rape Crisis Centre had “warned about efforts to “weaponise” sexual violence against migrants and said it has no evidence that immigration is a “central driver” of the harm experienced by those it supports.”
In response, Carol Nolan said that the Irish Times “should be perfectly well aware that the Irish state refused to aggregate data on crime based on nationality and ethnicity, and that was why the experience of other countries was so important.”
“As I said last week, I have constituents telling me all the time that they do not feel safe anymore,” she said. “The Irish Times are asking readers to deny reality – and it seems that they are in denial about migration and sexual crime.”
Deputy Nolan said she has “no faith or confidence in the mainstream Irish media to report accurately or fairly on what is without doubt, a clearly established pattern, seen in a number of EU member states, that correlates high rates of sexual violence with men of particular ethnic and cultural backgrounds.”
“I completely reject any attempt to frame what the coalition is attempting to achieve as anything other than the protection of women and girls,” she said.
“The media can go on believing there is no connection between high rates of immigration and sexual violence if it wants. I prefer to live in the real world where real harm is done,” she said.
Deputy Nolan said that the Irish Times could “chose to be in denial about the facts in relation to immigration, but the Irish people deserve to hear the facts and the experience of other countries.”
She told the event last week that: “my concern is that while we have had successive governments making limited efforts to tackle sexual violence, they have at the same time effectively turned a blind eye to a major contributing factor to violence against women and girls; namely the presence here of non-national men who appear to view sexual violence or aggression as a right”.
She added that Ms Coyne had attended the press event earlier this month organised by the Women’s Coalition on Immigration but had not since reported on what was said.
Deputy Ken O’Flynn, who was also contacted by the Irish Times, said that he attended the event in question to listen to concerns raised by women about safety and accountability within the criminal justice system. His participation was motivated by the need to ensure that issues raised by victims are heard and addressed, he said.
Deputy O’Flynn said he has been clear that sexual violence is a serious crime that must be prosecuted regardless of the background of the perpetrator, and that equality before the law must apply in every case.
He pointed to previous statements he had made on the issue. “Four years ago a vulnerable woman with an intellectual disability was sexually assaulted by a migrant. Recently, our courts ruled that he should receive a reduced sentence because, owing to his nationality, he would face difficulties in an Irish prison. Accountability before the law should apply equally to everyone.”
Deputy O’Flynn said he has submitted a Private Members’ Bill to the Parliamentary Drafting Office which would require the publication of anonymised annual statistics on the nationality and immigration status of persons convicted of offences in Ireland. “The aim is to support transparency and better-informed policy discussions, in full compliance with data protection law,” he said.
He said the public debate on criminal justice policy should be informed by accurate data and that raising concerns about equality before the law should not be mischaracterised.
“The issue at hand in relation to ethnicity of offender is made more difficult and more opaque due to the fact that Ireland does not publish detailed crime statistics broken down by nationality or ethnicity of offenders,” he said.
He pointed to Sweden which he said collects statistics on crime by birthplace or immigrant background, mainly through research from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) and court analyses.
“A major Swedish TV investigation analysing 843 rape and attempted-rape court cases found that 58% of convicted offenders had a foreign background (born abroad or with immigrant parents),” he said.
“In cases where the victim did not know the attacker, the proportion of offenders born outside Europe rose to about 75%.”
“Around 38% of people convicted of violent crime in Sweden in 2022 were foreign-born, while immigrants made up roughly 18% of the population, with similar patterns appear for some offences such as assault and robbery,” he said.