New proposals to strengthen laws around consent have been approved by cabinet.
The proposals would mean someone accused of rape would have to show what measures they undertook to ensure consent was given.
More details around the proposed legislation, brought forward by the Justice Minister Helen McEntee, will be published by the government by the end of the year.
Executive Director of the Rape Crisis Network, Cliona Sadlier, says if passed, the new laws would make the system fairer:
"It has to be objectively reasonable to the victim themselves, but to everyone else the defense that actually they really had an understanding that consent had been fully obtained at the time. So, that's the key bit that's being changed here, changing from subjective to objective. What that means is that that will be something that makes sense to all of us as opposed to simply make sense to the defendant themselves."
