A "significant" increase in staff and resources will be needed at the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre in preparation for the inquiry into alleged child sex abuse in the Dublin archdiocese, according to its clinical director .
Angela McCarthy said yesterday the centre was expecting an "onslaught" of calls for help when the inquiry got under way next year, particularly when it published its report.
It was compelled to raise more money this year than ever before, raising €500,000 more than it received in State funding.
At the launch of the centre's new website, Ms McCarthy said when the Ferns report on clerical sex abuse was published last month, "the phones went wild". There was a 78 per cent increase in the volume of calls in the week following its publication.
"We really were inundated. It was a mixture of clerical abuse and non-clerical and from all around the country. Calls were from across the age range, though a lot from older men, some in their 70s and crying about what had happened to them, how their lives had been destroyed and they'd never got them back."
The centre also hopes to employ interpreters to increase accessibility for non-nationals.
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