The Health Service Executive is to set up two new sexual-assault treatment units in Mullingar and Galway.
The move follows a national review last year of treatment services available to victims of sexual assaults.
The Government has set aside €1.5 million for 2007 and €2.5 million for every full year from then on to establish the units, which will be based at the Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar, and at University College Hospital, Galway.
The funding will also be used to support the introduction of forensic nurse training to allow nurses to carry out forensic clinical examinations.
The HSE said it also intended to upgrade the four existing sexual-assault treatment units at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, and Cork, Waterford and Letterkenny.
Dr Mary Holohan, national medical director of Adult SAT services, said that the expansion of services would make a huge contribution in helping victims of serious trauma.
The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre welcomed today's announcement. Chief executive Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop said the increase in the number of sexual-assault treatment units in the country may well encourage more people to come forward to report sex crimes.
"We know that only 10 per cent report crimes of rape and sexual assault in this country, and there is no doubt but complainants were put off reporting when they knew they had to travel, sometimes right across the country, in order to be forensically examined," she said.
