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.

The service has only three lines, and there are not enough people to cover the lines at all times. A majority of the calls (51%) were from first-time callers. If they are having trouble getting through, how many despair of receiving help from the service? Less than €100,000 would cover the extra funding needed.

The Government promised this funding last year, but Women’s Aid is still waiting for the Health Service Executive to provide the money before the ratio of unanswered calls exceeds 50%. The Health Service Executive has squandered millions on faulty computing systems, and a small fortune on bonuses rewarding some of its people, despite the inefficiencies that have plagued the Service.

Yet it could not to find the time to allocate a relatively small sum of money to provide some hope for women in distress, which is the very least that it should be doing.

The combined failures of the Government and HSE to act in this instance must be condemned in the strongest terms. It is an outrage.