More than 120 intellectually disabled people are sexually abused in Ireland each year and that number might be only the "tip of the iceberg", according to a report compiled by St Michael's House in Dublin.
Mr Alan Corbett, National Clinical Director of CARI
The report will be published later this year in the Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities.
The Children at Risk in Ireland (CARI) Foundation, which released the report today, proposed higher levels of protection for children and adults with intellectual disabilities as well as "equal access to justice" and therapeutic support for intellectually disabled people who have been sexually abused.
Mr Alan Corbett, National Clinical Director of CARI, called the findings "startling" but not unexpected.
He said the report confirms the fact that "children and adults with intellectual disabilities are significantly more vulnerable to sexual abuse than the rest of the population."
"Calls to our helpline and cases we are working with around the country indicate that this startling figure may actually be the tip of a far larger iceberg.
Cases are coming to our attention that reveal it is not just children who are at risk in Ireland, it is adults too.
This is a difficult taboo area for Ireland to have to face up to, but unless we do, this abuse will continue."
He added that the research "makes it clear that ... people with intellectual disabilities have less rights than others."