The National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) has today called on the Government to support the work of Irish women’s groups and provide them with "realistic funding".
Council chairwoman Ms Gráinne Healy said a research study - commissioned by the NWCI - showed 79 per cent of locally based groups and 65 per cent of women's organisations and projects, operate on less than £1,000 per annum.
Launching the Framing the Futurereport today, Ms Healy said women's organisations play important social, educational and support roles in the lives of local women and the broader community.
She said the groups represented a diverse range of Irish women including urban women, rural women, disabled women, women experiencing violence, lone parents, lesbians, minority ethnic women, Traveller women, widows and older women.
Ms Healy said the NWCI study showed an increase in the number of women groups set up over the last ten years, with 43 per cent of organisations established in the last five years and 60 per cent established in the last 10 years.
There are currently 2,631 women’s groups in the Republic catering for the needs of 75,000 women annually.
This, Ms Healy said signified "a clear and urgent need for a defined strategy by the Government to provide realistic funding for these organisations and groups, many of which are providing vital counselling, support and crisis services for women".
Ms Healy said the report posed a challenge for the Government to tackle the issue and said the NWCI expected the Government "to respond by creating a budget line which is accessible to local women's groups".