Levels of domestic violence in Laois-Offaly are among the highest in the State outside of the major urban centres, the latest figures show.
A local group says high rates of domestic violence have been consistently recorded in the two counties and it has applied for funding to undertake research to find out why.
The Garda annual report for 2000 shows there were 234 recorded incidents in the Laois-Offaly division, in which 72 people were injured, 63 people were charged and 58 were convicted.
Next to the Louth-Meath area, Laois-Offaly has the highest number of incidents recorded, outside of Limerick, Cork city and the Dublin metropolitan region.
Laois-Offaly also has the highest number of convictions for domestic violence in the eastern region.
This high conviction rate is due to a successful partnership approach by different agencies in the area, said Ms Molly Buckley, a volunteer with the Offaly Women in Crisis Group and independent candidate in the Laois-Offaly constituency in the forthcoming general election.
But she said funding from the Midland Health Board (MHB) for support services for victims of domestic violence in the region is the lowest of all of the State's health boards.
She said the group, which provides support services for victims of domestic abuse, works closely with the gardaí and the legal community in the area.
A garda and a solicitor are among the representatives of statutory and non-statutory bodies that sit on the group's board, she said.
The group has applied for funding from the Combat Poverty Agency to try to discover why "as long as figures have been compiled, those from Laois-Offaly have been high", Ms Buckley said.
The predominantly rural profile of the area is a factor in the levels of domestic violence, she said. "The rural environment leads to feelings of isolation and resigned acceptance by women who are battered and beaten in their own home." She said this is "slightly different from urban areas".
Furthermore, she said, the "male-dominated culture" of many rural areas also contributes, as does "the whole issue of land", which, she said, complicates the granting and enforcing of a barring order from the courts.
The lack of transport services are also a factor, which, she said, makes it more difficult for some women to come forward to support services.
Ms Sharon O'Halloran, director of the National Network of Women's Refuges and Support Services,said barring orders often are not effective in rural areas, where there are insufficient Garda resources to enforce them.
In the midlands region, there is one refuge, in Athlone, which operates 24 hours a day and has four family units. Ms Buckley said the service is of a good standard, but alone it is inadequate to serve the entire region.
Ms O'Halloran said she is "very concerned at the rise in severity" of domestic violence incidents, including deaths and murders.
She said other regions have a lack of services. There are no refuges, for example, in Sligo, Leitrim and Cavan, but adds that refuges themselves should not be the sole solution to the complex problem.
The public relations officer for Offaly Women in Crisis Group, Ms Vivienne Clarke, said, "Laois- Offaly is a blackspot."
The group said it is providing a service with the MHB and the gardaí, but "would like to see the community response to domestic violence improved".
An educational campaign should be established, said Ms Clarke, which would go into schools and tell boys and girls from a young age that domestic violence is a crime. "But we need funding," she said.