Domestic abuse and violence against women are a constant presence in the news. It\u2019s not just a feeling that it has become an increasingly dangerous time to be a woman in Ireland; the figures reflect it.<\/p>\n
Disclosures to Women\u2019s Aid reached more than 40,000 in 2023, the highest level ever recorded by the organisation, while in 2024 Garda\u00ed dealt with more than 65,000 domestic violence-related calls nationally.<\/p>\n
What the statistics don\u2019t illustrate is what happens after someone makes that call and seeks help. They don\u2019t show how difficult it can be to move through systems that are meant to provide protection, but are often slow, fragmented and hard to navigate.<\/p>\n
These are not simple situations with simple exits. They involve safety, housing, policing, courts, children, money, trauma and the long-term reality of rebuilding a life.<\/p>\n
And too often, the response is shaped around procedures rather than the lived reality of the person trying to survive them.<\/p>\n
A report launched in Dublin this week by the National Observatory on Violence Against Women, convened by the National Women\u2019s Council, sets out proposals aimed at addressing that gap, including how survivors can be more directly involved in shaping policy.<\/p>\n
The relevance in Donegal is clear. Figures released to Aont\u00fa through a Parliamentary Question show Garda\u00ed responded to 2,032 domestic abuse-related callouts in the county over the past year, a 51 per cent increase on the previous figure. That shows the level of demand being placed on the system.<\/p>\n
It also underlines why the experience of those moving through that system is so important.<\/p>\n
Over the last decade, personal testimony has helped bring domestic abuse into greater public view in Ireland and has shaped many of the changes that followed. Cuan, the statutory agency tasked with tackling domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, is now in place. There is a national strategy built around prevention, protection and support.<\/p>\n
The legal framework has also developed in recent years, including the recognition of coercive control and new offences relating to stalking and non-fatal strangulation.<\/p>\n
Those are all significant developments. But policy is only meaningful if it works when someone needs it.<\/p>\n
The report makes the case for a more consistent role for survivors in shaping laws, services and national strategies, with different experiences represented, including women from marginalised communities and families who have lost loved ones.<\/p>\n
That kind of involvement can show where the system works, but also where it becomes slow, confusing or difficult to navigate. It can show what happens after the Garda callout, after the court application, after the emergency payment, after the promise that support is available.<\/p>\n
It also highlights where policy decisions, however well intentioned, can fall short once they meet real-life circumstances.<\/p>\n
A Domestic Violence Travel Supplement is due to begin next week, offering immediate help with travel costs for people fleeing abuse. It follows the existing Rent Supplement model for victims of domestic violence.<\/p>\n
On paper, that is a positive step. But survivors and frontline services are best placed to say how useful it will be if there is nowhere safe to go, especially in the north-west, where distance, transport and accommodation shortages are real factors.<\/p>\n
The same applies to the idea gaining momentum that victims should be able to remain in their homes while perpetrators are removed. It responds to something survivors have described for years: seeking safety can mean losing a home, routine, school, community and financial stability.<\/p>\n
Indeed, survivor input in this way is not a new idea. In Scotland, it has helped shape domestic abuse legislation, including the recognition of coercive control as a criminal offence.<\/p>\n
In Ireland, too, policy has been reshaped by lived experience in other areas, from the response to the CervicalCheck controversy to the work of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission.<\/p>\n
People who have lived through a system see details others miss. For years, survivors of sexual and domestic violence have been relied on to speak publicly, often at personal cost, so that others might understand the reality of abuse.<\/p>\n
The report launched this week asks for something more structured than that: a way for lived experience to inform decisions before policies are written and services are designed, so that the response is grounded in reality and gaps are identified before they become failures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Domestic abuse and violence against women are a constant presence in the news. It\u2019s not just a feeling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[91067,1485,186903,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-427603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-domestic-abuse","tag-donegal","tag-fresh-take-column","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}