A major new campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the issue of sexual consent, has been launched.

The Ask Consent campaign aims to encourage people to talk about what consent means in the context of having sex with another person. It emphasises that sex without consent is rape.

The campaign has been developed by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) and is supported by rape crisis centres nationwide, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) and the White Ribbon Campaign.

Speaking about the campaign, DRCC chief executive, Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop, said that she hoped it would ‘encourage everyone to have the very important conversation on what consent in a sexual context means'.

"Dublin, Galway, Tullamore and Cork's trained rape crisis centre volunteers accompanied 108 victims of rape and sexual assault to four sexual assault treatment units in July and August in 2015. Research tells us that only one in 10 report these crimes. These most recent figures are very worrying and alarming," she pointed out.

Meanwhile, according to Tom Meagher of the White Ribbon Campaign, it is essential that myths about consent are dispelled.

"We want to highlight that the Ask Consent campaign clearly states that consent is not the absence of a no, but the presence of an un-coerced agreed, and enthusiastic, yes. In other words, neither partner should be in any doubt as to the willingness of the other partner before having sex. This is essential. Sex without consent is rape," he commented.

Also speaking on this issue, USI president, Kevin Donoghue, noted that a USI survey of students found that 16% of respondents ‘experienced some form of unwanted sexual experience while at their current educational institution'.

He described these statistics as ‘alarming'.

This three-week campaign has been funded by Cosc, the National Office for the Prevention of Domestic Sexual and Gender-based Violence.

Follow the conversation on Twitter at #AskConsent

To contact the rape crisis national helpline, call 1800 77 88 88.