Women’s refuges struggling to cope with demand

Today SAFE Ireland published its Domestic Violence Services National Statistics for 2010. While over 7,000 individual women received support from Domestic Violence Support Services last year, on over 3,236 occasions services were unable to accommodate women and their children because the refuge was full or there was no refuge in their area. This represents a 38% increase of the figures for 2009.

The statistics also reveal that more than 2,850 individual children received support from Domestic Violence Services in 2010. This figure includes 2,355 children who were accommodated in refuges and 56 who were accommodated in transitional housing.

An average of over 100 calls a day were made to helplines across the country which amounted to 38,629 calls in total.

Releasing the statistics, Safe Ireland said that the latest figures proved that existing services had reached tipping point. The organisation’s director Sharon O’Halloran commented, “The real pressure points are being seen in the number of times women cannot be accommodated immediately. These women and their children are the tragic fall out of Ireland’s abject and consistent failure to meet European minimum requirements for refuge.”

Ireland has just one third of the refuge capacity recommended by the Council of Europe. With budget cutbacks, essential new refuges are not opening and existing refuges are finding it more difficult to maintain their services.

To read the statistics in full click here.

SAFE Ireland is the national representative body for women’s frontline domestic violence services in Ireland. To find out more go to www.safeireland.ie

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