Domestic violence - System fails to provide protection

THIS time last year the Irish Examiner highlighted the scourge of domestic violence with a series of articles on the problem, and the failure of the State to deal with it.

For too long, domestic violence was kept in the shadows.

Some progress has been made in the past year. In the last budget, the Government lifted a four-year funding freeze on the violence-against-women sector and pumped more than €4 million into frontline services.

The problems are very real, and a great deal still remains to be done. In the past 11 years the death toll due to domestic violence has reached 137, or an average of more than 12 people a year. In addition, there are the horrific injuries to women and physical and psychological damage to children who witness such violence.

The victims are mainly women and children. The abusers are as likely to be live-in boyfriends as husbands, but the system is failing to provide proper protection for those being abused.

Those who apply for a barring order have to wait for between 12 and 16 weeks for a case to be heard in court.

This demonstrates a frightening lack of urgency in dealing with what are urgent problems.