A steady demand for female genital mutilation (fgm) is being reported from among immigrant communities.
At a conference on the issue organised by the Irish Family Planning Association, both health workers and immigrants said they had been contacted by African parents seeking genital mutilation for their daughters. They are seeking clear guidelines on how to deal with the issue to have it made illegal.
Ms Juliet Imiruaye, from Nigeria and herself a victim of mutilation, said she had no doubt it was happening here among African communities. For the authorities to assume otherwise would be "a big mistake", she said.
Referring to the death of a baby boy in Waterford last year following a botched "home-circumcision", she said: "No one ever thought such a thing like that could happen. I am telling you fgm is happening here."
A number of health professionals also said they had been approached about procuring the procedure. Ms Majella Darcy, a nurse and member of the immigrant support organisation Colámh, said several public health nurses had been approached by immigrant women seeking fgm for their baby girls.
"They [the nurses\] didn't know how to respond or what to say to them, because there are no guidelines. It is very unclear what you say to these women. So the women just went back out into the community and we don't know what they did."
Mr P.J. Boyle, of Colámh's health and development group, said he had been contacted by a public health nurse in the midlands in the past six months.
"She had had a woman in who had just had a baby girl and wanted to get her circumcised. I advised her to meet with the mother again and discuss the consequences of having it done."
Fgm, or female circumcision, is not required by any religion but is a strongly adhered to tradition in many parts of Africa. Designed to preserve virginity and contain women's sexuality, it is considered necessary to ensure females are "marriageable".
Regarded by the UN as a violation of human rights, in its commonest form it involves the removal of the clitoris, the removal of the labia majora and sometimes of the labia minora.
According to the UN, mutilation can be inflicted on baby girls as young as a week old though is more usually performed on girls between four and 15 years. The consequences are physical, psychological and sexual, including death, severe trauma and shock, haemorrhage, abscess formation, infertility as a result of infections, painful sexual intercourse, no interest in sex and complications with labour.
Though illegal here under the Offences Against the Person Act, attempts to have it named as a prohibited act have failed. Ms Liz McManus tabled a Private Members Bill to outlaw it in 2001 though this was not taken up by the Government and has now lapsed.
It is illegal in Britain, Australia, Norway, the US and Canada.
Ms Salome Mbugua, of the African Women's Network, has heard of women seeking the practice for their Irish-born daughters. "They may not be getting it done here but if they can't they probably travel, probably to England."
She joins others concerned about the issue in calling for it to be made explicitly illegal.
Campaigners are also seeking clear guidelines for both gardaí and health professionals on how to deal with people either seeking fgm or performing it.
