Women’s Aid warns support system for victims ‘creaking at the seams’
Women's Aid received a record number of contacts from victims of domestic abuse but said the figures are the 'tip of the iceberg'.
Women’s Aid has received a record number of contacts from those suffering from domestic abuse but the organisation says the figures are just the "tip of the iceberg".
The group’s Annual Impact Report, launched today, details 31,229 contacts with its national and regional support services last year.
This is a 16% increase in contacts compared to the previous year and the highest ever received by the organisation.
In total, there were 33,990 disclosures of domestic abuse, including 5,412 reports of abuse of children.
Abuse included coercive control, emotional abuse, physical violence, sexual abuse, and economic control.
In some instances, abusers were targeting the mother-child bond by manipulating and encouraging the children to join in on the abuse of their mother.
Golf clubs, hurleys, guns, and hammers were used to threaten women, said the report.
In total, 84% of those in contact with Women’s Aid in 2022 were abused by a current or former male intimate partner.
An additional 10% of women were abused by a man who was not an intimate partner or ex-partner while 6% of women disclosed abuse by a female abuser.
Women’s Aid chief executive Sarah Benson noted that these figures were “just the tip of an enormous iceberg whereby so many victims and survivors still suffer alone, in silence and without specialist support”.
The group recorded a 12% increase in the number of contacts relating to physical assaults against children compared to 2022.
Last year, 12 women died violently. Already this year, five women have been killed in similar circumstances.
The report stresses that, while it is encouraging and important that more women are speaking up and reaching out for support, every system they are accessing is “creaking at the seams”.
In 2022, Women’s Aid distributed €127,077 in funds to 242 women who were in receipt of direct support from their services, on 294 occasions.
For the first time ever, Women’s Aid was in a position to extend its emergency funds to benefit women and children nationally.
It did this via a scheme offered to local domestic violence services throughout the country, with funding coming in three rounds between 2021 and 2023.
One service distributing the funding noted that “all women were so grateful for monies received, one woman cried and couldn’t believe this was happening, she felt huge relief for her and her children".
Ms Benson called on the Government to put in place a “dedicated and focused vehicle for implementation” of the recommendations made in the report.
“We must get this right to honour the many lives that have been lost in such circumstances and to honour their loved ones left behind," she said. "We must give ourselves the tools to learn from the past so we can do better in the future to prevent such deaths.
“As individuals and communities, we must all come together and create an equal Ireland, free from violence. The women and children of Ireland must know that they are not alone."
One line in the report’s ‘Hope for the Future’ section reads: "We cannot lose this opportunity to push forward for a zero-tolerance approach to gender-based violence and make our vision of this a reality.”
- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.
