Most Childline calls go unanswered - ISPCC

The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) has said that more than 700,000 calls were made to its Childline telephone service last year.

But due to a lack of resources, the ISPCC said less than one in three of these calls were answered. A total 706,085 calls were made to Childline in 2005, a decrease of 25,646 on the previous year.

A total of 203,593 calls were answered, representing an increase of 13 per cent on 2004. Childline is answering on average one in three calls during the week and one in four calls at the weekend, the ISPCC said.

More than 117,382 answered calls involved a two-way interaction between the caller and Childline. Some 53 per cent of these calls involved young people discussing a specific problem.

Of these calls some 9 per cent concerned sexual issues; 3.75 per cent were about physical abuse; 2.64 per cent concerned sexual abuse and 4.74 per cent concerned pregnancy.

The ISPCC said 2005 showed a marked increase in two specific call categories - pregnancy and bullying. The organisation said its new automated text service received 146,325 texts during the year.

It said pregnancy and facts of life were the most common reasons for a young person to access the service.

A new website www.childline.iehas been established for children seeking information on the service or wishing to access information on support topics.