Coalition: Ignore women at your peril

IT IS disingenuous of Justice Minister Michael McDowell to insinuate that the National Domestic Violence Intervention Agency, a Government-funded pilot body that for the past three years has provided invaluable support for victims of domestic violence, is somehow to blame for closing down after running out of State funding.

His department’s off-hand treatment of this agency, forcing it to operate on a shoestring, has exposed the hypocrisy of Fianna Fáil-PD pledges on women’s issues. In light of this scandal, the Government stands accused of cynically neglecting women’s issues despite making a string of promises it has failed to honour.

With women’s groups preparing to make this an election issue, the Tánaiste should be under no illusion about the level of anger among women’s groups up and down the country. Above all, the Government’s shoddy treatment of an agency operating successfully at the coal-face of domestic violence was the last straw.