Difficulties due to domestic and sexual violence are sometimes "more complex" in rural areas and require a more complex response, the Minister of State for Rural Development, Mr Eamon Ó Cuiv, has said.
He was speaking at yesterday's publication of a position paper on responses to domestic violence, drawn up by a north-west Connemara community-based group.
The Domestic Violence Response (DVR) group has called for a reform of the law and says there is a need to "examine and curb" the discretionary power of the judiciary in this area.
A "combination of ignorance and arrogance, pervasive in the legal system, has disenfranchised countless victims who have come before it looking for justice," the report says. The legal system is being used to "further abuse" victims who present themselves to it, it says.
DVR was set up in 1998 following years of campaigning and awareness raising work by the Letterfrack Women's Group. The project is managed by a local voluntary committee and employs two part-time workers. Its Connemara Justice Document published yesterday seeks to highlight reforms needed in the criminal justice system on family law and sexual violence.
It says Irish law should change in line with that in Britain and the US, to allow the State to prosecute all cases of domestic assault, and that the pattern of consensual sex as a defence be abolished in cases of marital rape. It proposes that where a perpetrator of an assault has an intimate relationship with the victim, this should be an aggravating factor in sentencing.
The report recommends that if marital breakdown is caused by domestic violence, the safety of the victim and her children should take precedence over the perpetrator's right to automatic unsupervised access. It wants the courts to "recognise that a perpetrator who continually drags his partner through the court looking for a variation on access is using the legal system to abuse the partner".
On sexual assault and rape, it says that an abuse of a position of trust and family relationship should be among of a series of aggravating factors taken into account when sentencing. It says the automatic right of a defendant to represent himself in sexual abuse cases should be removed because it is open to further abuse of the victim.
The Minister of State commended the group for its work in setting up a local support service. Their commitment to accompanying women to court was another invaluable support to women.