The number of women seeking support due to domestic abuse has reached a fifty-year high.
Women’s Aid says it had 31,229 contacts last year – a 16 percent increase on 2021.
Abuse included coercive control, emotional abuse, physical violence, sexual abuse, and economic control.
Meanwhile, these figures mirror trends locally, as Amber Women’s Refuge based in Kilkenny recorded a 20% increase in the number of women and children receiving refuge from domestic violence in the county last year.
Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, Sarah Benson, says the figures are just the tip of the iceberg:
“In 2022, Women’s Aid had the largest number of contacts with our services in our history,
which is nearly 50 years of history. So we had 31,229 contacts with our frontline services,
a 16% increase on 2021. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. That’s just Women’s Aid figures.”
