Women's Aid to get extra funds for helpline

Frank Fahey, Minister of State at the Department of Justice, has said he will provide additional funding to the domestic violence helpline operated by Women's Aid following revelations that two out of five calls last year went unanswered.

A new report from Women's Aid yesterday showed that while its helpline had received almost 20,000 calls last year, the service did not have the capacity to deal with over 7,700 of these.

Expressing concern about the helpline, director of Women's Aid Margaret Martin said that "while the number of calls being made to the service is increasing, our ability to respond remains the same.

"We do not have the resources to fully respond to the demand.

"Some of those calling us are in urgent need of assistance.

"It is unacceptable that we cannot respond due to a lack of resources," she said.

Launching the report yesterday, Mr Fahey said he had been informed that the helpline problem could be dealt with at a cost of €70,000.

He gave a commitment to find the money as quickly as possible.

Mr Fahey added that he would be discussing overall funding for dealing with violence against women within the Cabinet shortly.

The Women's Aid report said that 50 per cent of calls to its helpline related to emotional abuse, with 30 per cent of calls referring to physical abuse.

Some 9 per cent of calls to the helpline related to sexual abuse, with 368 rapes within relationships being reported to the service.