Hear, hear.

As the Tánaiste knows, 7,000 students marched in UCD at the beginning of March in support and solidarity with a student who had been drugged, raped, had image-based sexual abuse used against her and, unfortunately, became pregnant and lost her place on her course. I know the Tánaiste is well aware of the issues. It was very positive, in an era of an epidemic of gender-based violence and where the manosphere is being promoted, to see all genders and students there. They wanted justice for this student and they wanted her reinstated onto the course. They also wanted an end to the multiple sharing of image-based sexual abuse. Unfortunately, those things have not happened. The student has not successfully been reinstated and there have been further images of image-based sexual abuse. The Government's role in this is that it has a duty to make colleges safe and to have good procedures and practices by authorities.

I want to raise the academic issues first, and getting this student back to her dream of becoming a doctor and allowing her to salvage something from this horrific trauma. It has been a month since the dean of medicine responded to the medical student after the talks that took place. She was assured they would reply after Easter but that has not happened. This is going against the thousands who marched and is also a rebuke to that student who put her faith in the process. As she said to me, it was difficult and upsetting to be let down and then have to re-engage. We have an unprecedented situation here and an unprecedented response is called for. I know there are issues with academic qualifications and I am absolutely not saying this is straightforward but I ask the Minister to intervene with the college even more directly, and I know he met the student. It is absolutely vital we do not have a rapist continuing on and the rape victim being the one who suffers.

I also want to mention the culture in UCD. A number of people were emailed this image again, not on the UCD server but to people connected with the protest and the president herself. President Feely was sent this image since this was raised publicly. This person is clearly saying "F you" to everybody else - the brazenness of it. However, this comes from the top because the UCD legal team characterised a rape disclosure as dropping a bombshell. Those were the words it were used. This 21-year-old was crying on the stand. When she reported text messages she received last year, she was told she might be better to continue her studies in a different college year. These ideas are coming from the top. A medical student wrote to me about the dean of medicine coming into the college, putting up a big QR code in the lecture hall and going through what happened in the court. This student said to me it bordered on victim-blaming and it was shocking to see somebody talking about a rape victim like that. We have real problems still in our colleges.

I thank Deputy Coppinger for raising this issue and this case again, and I say that sincerely. I know the intense and constructive ways in which she has been engaging to try to support this student. I say that before I say the next piece, which is I am genuinely not 100% sure how to answer this question, for the reason that I am conscious, based on what she has told me now and what she has said previously in this House, that there are parts of this that may require due process. There are very clear laws in this country, quite rightly, regarding rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexual violence. An Garda Síochána are the people who enforce those laws and no part of Irish society, no matter what kind of governing structure anybody has or academic autonomy or anything else, is independent of or separate from those laws. I need to be very conscious of that, and I am not being in any way critical of the Deputy, but when it comes to referring to a rapist or a rape victim, there are places outside of the Dáil where, quite rightly, importantly and appropriately, those issues should be determined and established.

I join the Deputy in commending all the students who stood up and spoke up for zero tolerance when it comes to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. The Deputy made the point that it was not just women or female students at that protest but it was also men because men cannot recuse themselves from this huge epidemic in Ireland as regards sexual violence. I fully agree with her in a broad sense that every college, workplace and educational setting has an absolute duty to be a safe environment. I remember from my own time as Minister for higher education a significant body of work that was under way in the universities in that regard. Therefore, I am concerned and disappointed - and it is an understatement - to hear some of what the Deputy has told me here today.

I am conscious the Deputy has also said some of this is not straightforward in terms of the academic piece. I acknowledge that and I know the Minister, Deputy Lawless, had an engagement with the student, quite properly, on foot of the Deputy raising this issue here. I will speak to the Minister again and perhaps there is an opportunity to engage with the governing authority as well as the college. I will ask the Minister to come back to Deputy Coppinger directly.

The final thing I will say is that this House has quite rightly taken serious action in recent years on the sharing of intimate images, or indeed even the threat of sharing intimate images under Coco's Law. That law is very clear and robust on that and I expect the laws of this land to be applied without fear or favour. Clearly, if there are any breaches, complaints or allegations of a breach of that, An Garda Síochána should investigate it fully.

I wonder should the Minister ask for himself or one of his team, if you like, to be engaged in those discussions with the college and the student because it does not help when the dean of medicine walks into lecture halls, spends half an hour undermining a student and is then the person taking part in the discussion around the academic issues. This medical student told me that a significant number of students now perceive the supports available as performative and not something they would engage in because if you speak out, you are going to be ostracised. This is a male student by the way. He said that many of them felt their colleague's credibility and the reputation of the student were being undermined in front of their own eyes and that they would not talk about a rape patient in that way.

There are problems in the culture, and I am sure it is not just UCD but other colleges too. UCD has a DEI Athena Swan Award for its great ability to be inclusive but that is not reflected in reality. Just to say, a rape did take place, regardless of the person not reporting it.

You can see why. They tried to get on with their life. We know that from the image that was shared after, in any case.

The Deputy should conclude now.

I am asking the Tánaiste to get the Minister to intervene as much as he can.

I am not in any way, shape or form undermining or implying any doubt in regard to what the victim has said to the Deputy and others. I am simply respecting the role I have versus the roles others have in society. There are obviously processes outside of here that have to establish fact. I do not say that to be in any way lacking in empathy; it is just to be factual. On the broader point the Deputy makes around the Minister and asking whether the Minister can provide any further assistance, guidance or linkages with the governing authorities, it is certainly a point I will discuss with the Minister, Deputy Lawless. I know the Minister already met with the student and was eager to do so.

A broader point I want to make - I made this point when I was Minister for higher education - is that there is an epidemic of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in Irish society. Our colleges and universities are not immune from that and, therefore, there was a very strict programme of action that they were all meant to undertake. To hear the Deputy - and I accept she said it in good faith - use the word "performative" is something I know none of us would like to ever see, so I will ask the Minister to reflect on that broader point too.