Domestic violence victims waiting up to four months for courts to hear safety applications
'If women break out of the control of the person that is trying to dominate their lives, we need to make sure that help is there for them,' said Sinn Féin’s justice spokesman Martin Kenny. File Picture
Domestic violence victims are having to wait up to four months for the courts to hear their safety applications as new figures reveal a postcode lottery for people seeking protection from violent partners.
It comes as Justice Minister Simon Harris has admitted that more judges are needed to ensure that people can have prompt access to justice.
Latest figures from the Courts Service show District Court waiting times for family-law domestic violence applicants vary widely across the country.
In Trim, Co Meath, people seeking protection are forced to wait 16 weeks which, Safe Ireland says, compounds their trauma.
The figures also show waits of:
- 14 weeks in Tullamore;
- 12 weeks in Carlow, Cavan, and Nenagh;
- up to eight weeks in Bray, Clonmel, and Ennis.
District courts in Waterford, Limerick, Tralee, Thurles, and Dundalk all have waiting times of up to four weeks.
However, 16 areas, including Cork and Kilkenny, tend to hear the application at the next sitting, normally the following week. In Dublin, applications can get a hearing on the same day.
The latest figures from the Courts Service supplied by the Department of Justice account for Q3 in 2022.
Sinn Féin’s justice spokesman Martin Kenny said the delays to victims seeking protection from the courts are unacceptable, and compound trauma for survivors.
He called on the Government to invest €5.7m so that additional judges can be appointed immediately to end the delays.
“We need to ensure that particularly vulnerable people — women in many cases who have had deplorable things happen to them, both physically abused and often coercively controlled for years in some cases — take the courage to try and get help.
"We’re all encouraging them to do that, and we need to make sure the system is there to cope with it."
Miriam Kivlehan, programme and communication manager with Safe Ireland, said interim barring or protection orders can be sought quickly, but they only last for eight days. She said the waiting issue arises when women apply for a permanent order.
“Women are left in a very precarious situation due to these delays and are reliant on the protection of the courts to give them some degree of safety that the perpetrator takes away,” she said.
It compounds the trauma for victims and their children as they will not feel safe to return to their home without that protection from the court, she said.
This has a knock-on effect on services such as refuge spaces, and inhibits women from moving on with their lives while also interrupting children’s lives and schooling, she told the .
Ms Kivlehan said the Government’s plans for a dedicated family law courts system will not reduce the backlog of applicants unless more judges are appointed.
She said the reform of family courts must be a priority for both the Government and the new domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence (DSGBV) agency.
Mr Harris told the Oireachtas justice committee that there is plenty of “empirical evidence” that Ireland does not have enough judges.
He said the setting up of a family-law court system is currently in the second stage of the Seanad which, if passed, will result in specialist judges working on such cases.
A report from the judicial planning working group is currently being considered by the Department of Justice. It is understood that it has recommended the appointment of more district court judges.
Since 2016, there has been no increase in available judges in the district or circuit courts, despite each Garda region witnessing increases in crimes such as sexual offences, harassment, and theft.
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