This article is from page 8 of the 2014-02-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
AS MANY as 420 women and children, who were victims of domestic abuse, or an average of three families every week, were turned away by Clare’s women’s refuge centre last year as there was no room to house them.
A total of 148 women and 272 children had to be relocated in other counties or housed with friends, as the service struggles under monetary cuts and a growing need.
While there are no official Garda or CSO figures to record the number of domestic crimes in the county, Clare Haven has come in contact with 466 families affected by domestic abuse last year alone, with many other families understood to be suffering in silence.
Clare Haven, which is working to capacity, is forced to assess the safety of the families presenting at the service and often times work with refuges in Limerick and Galway to find a place for those in immediate danger to stay.
Each year since 2008, more and more of the Government funding for the service has been cut, with the service now very reliant on charity fundraisers.
In his address to the Joint Oireachtais Committee overseeing legislation on domestic abuse, Clare Senator Tony Mulcahy (FG) said it is his belief that an immediate barring order should be issued to the instiga- tor of the abuse banning him or her from the family home.
“We need to take the criminal out of the house and then we would solve a lot of the housing problems,” he said.
As many as 99 families were homed by Clare Haven last year, including 184 children, while there was no room for 148 more families.
A further 219 women are being supported by Clare Haven’s outreach service in their own homes. Some of these women are still with their partners.
Clare Haven caters for women and children only, while male victims of domestic abuse are asked to contact the national organisation AMEN.
Despite the pressures on the Clare women’s refuge, ensuring the safety of the women and their families is paramount according to Clare Haven manager Denise Dunne.
“When someone rings us up, or through outreach as well, the first thing we do is assess the safety of them and their children. If it is something like they are high priority and they absolutely need refuge we would try to see if there are spaces in one of the other refuges such as Adapt in Limerick or Waterside in Galway. We work very, very closely with them. If the woman goes to Adapt or to Waterside when a room does become available we would take her back to Clare,” she said.
“If it is a thing she can stay with family members or friends and it is safe for her to do so, again we will say ring back in as day or two and we will see if we have a room available then.
“But part of the problem with the refuge been full all of the time it is very hard to move women on now. There is huge thresholds for rent allowance,” the manager explained.
“Also there are regulations around the housing list that is making it difficult for women to get on the housing list as well, and finance is huge as well,” she said.
“It is becoming very, very hard for us to keep the services running with the continuing cuts to funding as well. We were cut by 2.5 per cent by the Family Agency this year and that has been consistent with since 2008.”
In 2012 SAFE Ireland, the umbrella group for organisations that help victims of domestic violence, recorded that 8,449 women and 3,606 children received direct one-to-one services from specialist domestic violence support services in Ireland. In addition, in this same year domestic violence services answered 50,077 helpline calls across the country.