Refuges ‘forced to send women across the border’

ONE of the country’s busiest refuges for battered women now has “little option” but to send clients across the Border into the North for treatment due to pressure on services.

The Dundalk Women's Aid service said 2005 has been the busiest year in its history, with 30 women and their families turned away and referred elsewhere because there was no space available.

The figures also reveal that gardaí were contacted on 38 occasions by women who attended the refuge, but that there had been just 12 referrals to the service by gardaí.