Close to 100 domestic abuse calls are made to gardaí each day in Ireland, as official figures show an average of 690 domestic abuse incidents were reported to gardaí every week this year.
Almost 24,700 cases were brought to the attention of gardaí up to September 9th, according to the Irish Examiner, with around a third (8,552) identified to date as crimes and around half of these (4,019) resulting in charges.
Dublin accounts for more than a third of the total cases, with 8,941 incidents, followed by 5,612 in the eastern region, 5,103 in the western region and 5,030 in the southern division.
The figures were provided by Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Hildegarde Naughton, in response to a parliamentary question from Clare TD Michael McNamara.
Further data on various ‘breaches of order’ incidents and any crime incident where a recorded motive of ‘domestic abuse’ was reported up to September 9th showed a total of 8,552 incidents, with 4,019 charges to date.
'Saddened but not shocked'
Safe Ireland said they could only provide an initial response and would like to see further details from An Garda Síochána on their statistics and data, but said they were “saddened but not shocked by these numbers”.
Mary McDermott, chief executive of Safe Ireland said: “From an initial examination, it would seem that the figures — at just under 25,000 incidences of domestic violence reported up to early September 2021 — remain consistently high through this year.”
“They rhyme with what our affiliate domestic violence services have been saying consistently this year,” she added.
“Frontline services remain extremely busy and women continue to report, and are being supported in reporting, more incidences of domestic violence and breaches of orders to An Garda Síochána.”
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, Safe Ireland outlines a number of local services and helplines at safeireland.ie/get-help/where-to-find-help/.
You can also contact Women’s Aid (24-hour freephone helpline at 1800 341 900, email helpline@womensaid.ie) or Men’s Aid Ireland (confidential helpline at 01 554 3811, email hello@mensaid.ie) for support and information.
In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112.
