Complacency has crept into the efforts to clamp down on domestic violence.
A new report has shown that domestic abuse was a factor in the majority of murders last year in Ireland.
Garda figures released today show there’s been a 400% increase in the reports of sexual offences motivated by domestic violence.
And the overall number of domestic violence incidents investigated is up 9%.
The document is a detailed analysis of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence in Ireland.
Naoimh Murphy from the Amber Womens Refuge in Kilkenny says the continuing increases are extremely worrying; “There’s been a 9% increase on 2022 and that was when we were at the height of the pandemic and unfortunately I believe some complacency has crept in on this issue because we’ve seen commentary that the pandemic was responsible for the increase in reporting of domestic violence and abuse incidences but, you know, it’s well over a year now since lockdown’s eased and these incidences keep increasing; it’s a very, very disturbing trend”.
