Domestic violence - Failure to help women an outrage

One-in-five Irish women currently suffer domestic violence, according to figures given to the Oireachtas earlier this year.

Alcohol is involved in some 70% of those cases. This presents a frightening situation that could have long-term repercussions with the children who witness such behaviour, but the State is doing very little to rectify the situation. There were around 25,000 calls last year to the helpline set up by Women’s Aid.

That would represent only a fraction of the overall number of women suffering from domestic abuse, but 10,000 those calls, which was 40%, went unanswered.