Ten cases reported of sexual misconduct by Irish university staff

Two members of staff at UCD have been disciplined for sexual misconduct

There has been at least ten allegations of sexual misconduct across Irish universities in the past three years, with two such cases having led disciplinary action against staff members at University College Dublin (UCD).

University College Cork (UCC) and the National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM) each received three complaints of sexual harassment since 2015, with the former having had one of the allegations withdrawn, according to TheJournal.ie.

Both Dublin City University (DCU) and the University of Limerick (UL) stated that they had received no allegations of sexual misconduct in the past three years. The National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) said that there had been one such complaint in the past three years with an investigation against a member of staff currently underway.

Trinity refused the publication’s request for information under the Freedom of Information Act. The decision maker acting on behalf of College commented that they considered the public interest in upholding the privacy of the individuals involved to outweigh the public interest in the right of access to the information.

However, Trinity did disclose that there had been no cases involving allegations of sexual assault as between students and staff of the university.

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre CEO Noeline Blackwell told TheJournal.ie that the numbers likely did not show the “full picture”.

“It’s inconceivable in workplaces, institutions and universities that there are so few instances of sexual harassment,” said Blackwell.

This comes after the publication of NUIG’s Sexual Health and Attitudes, Galway (SHAG) Report in 2017 which found that 12.5% of female students and 2.5% of male students reported of having experience sexual contact where physical force or threats to physical harm were used.

Michael Gilna

Michael Gilna is a former Investigations Editor of Trinity News.