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.