The mother of a 15-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by four boys her own age has said that the assault had a detrimental impact on her daughter's life.
Mary, who does not want to be identified, said that her daughter was out with friends more than three years ago when she was targeted by a group of boys who isolated her away from her own friend group.
"She became completely withdrawn, very anxious, very distressed on her own," she said.
"Day to day normality completely disappeared, school was gone, sleeping was gone, going out with friends was gone."
Mary said that it was a "very, very dark time for the family".
"For a long while we felt like we were physically holding her together," she said.
"It was difficult to be able to stand by as a parent not knowing what to do to help your child."
A rise in sexually harmful behaviour among children has been reported by Children at Risk in Ireland (CARI), Ireland's national child sexual abuse agency.
The agency has said that the rise is driven by increased exposure to online pornography and harmful digital content.
CARI is a service supporting children and families affected by child sexual abuse.
It said that referrals for children engaging in unsafe or age-inappropriate sexualised behaviour rose from 8% in 2024 to 27% percent in 2025.
Mary said that her daughter had to wait a long time to get the emotional support that was needed.
She said it was a year after the assault that her daughter got the services she needed when they discovered CARI.
CARI currently has therapy services available in Dublin and Limerick.
The organisation has called for an increase in funding from the Government and Tusla to expand their therapy services nationally and to bring waiting lists down.
"After the waiting period close to 12 months and that is when we were made aware of CARI as a service," Mary said.
"It was life saving for us. She was given therapeutic counselling, which allowed her to become herself again, allowed her to get back her confidence and allowed her to start working on looking into the possibility of a future rather than hiding away from it."
Chief Executive Clinical Officer of CARI, Emer O'Neill, said that children under the age of 12 cannot process exposure to sexual material, so they act it out with siblings or peers.
She said that if the issue is not tackled effectively, it can generate further cycles of abuse.
Ms O'Neill said the numbers show a growing and urgent need for therapy services and called on Government and technical companies to act now to protect children on and offline.
Launching the organisation's strategy, she said that behind every statistic is a child, a family and a statistic that deserves to be heard.
'Deeply worrying issue' - minister
The Minister for Children has said that child sexual abuse is a "deeply worrying issue" for the Government and she said it must be taken "extremely seriously".
Norma Foley said that everyone has a role in the protection of children.
Speaking at CARI's strategy launch in Dublin, she said the work of CARI is powerful and at its core it serves children and society.
The minister said there is now less silence in terms of child sexual abuse, however, she said the terrible reality is that the scourge of child sexual abuse has not gone away.
Minister Foley said the use of AI to create fake explicit images of children is rising and is "deeply deeply worrying".
She said that the world and big tech has got to learn to listen and to act in a way to protect children and that children's safety is a key priority for the Government and for society.
She said when we get it right for children, we get it right for society and that child sexual abuse should never shape a child's future.
Tony Delaney, CEO SYS Group, a survivor of child sexual abuse spoke about his story.
The Tipperary man and former hurler said there was nowhere to go when he needed therapy but did not have the money for it.
He said it was disgraceful that people do not have therapy services available to them due to a lack of funding and that he was now able to afford therapy and was working through his issues.
Mr Delaney said that he had struggled with alcohol due to the abuse and that when people are abused they turn to suicide, alcohol and drug addiction.
He said many people have died by suicide and taken the abuse to the grave and that services like CARI are so important to ensure children get the services early to give them mechanisms to talk and to cope later in life.
