by Louise Doyle
THE manager of Donegal Domestic Violence Service (DDVS) has described a surge of 30 per cent in recorded domestic abuse offences in Donegal over a two-year period in Donegal as “concerning”.
Dr Marie Hainsworth is calling for an urgent cross-sectoral approach to look at the issue at a governmental level as latest figures reveal a worrying increase locally with severe strain being added to the already busy service.
In 2020, 898 offences were reported to gardaí in the Donegal Division, rising to 1,020 in 2021.
In 2022, the figures rose by 152 with 1,172 offences recorded in Donegal.
As of July 19, 2023 696 offences were recorded in the county.
The data, released to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, shows that over 45,000 offences nationally related to domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence occurred nationally in 2022.
The figures also indicate that gardaí have reported a steady increase in the number of reports of coercive control.
Speaking to the Donegal News, Dr Hainsworth said DDVS has seen an increase in contact to the service in the last month.
“We are seeing an increase in contacts to the service especially over the last month or so, and we have seen an increase in requests for orders through the court service as well.
“The figures are concerning because there is a large demand on the service, with more families facing homelessness and no obvious solution being offered by the government (or opposition parties) to address this.”
Dr Hainsworth said there are also concerns that many of the other support services involved in domestic abuse such as counselling, mental health, addiction support and child protection services are also under pressure.
“There definitely needs to be a cross-sectoral approach to looking at this issue at a national governmental level.”
Deputy McDonald asked Justice Minister Helen McEntee to provide the number of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence offences data by each garda district.
Some 45,224 incidents were recorded in by gardaí in 2022. This figure is up 12.7 per cent compared to the 40,135 reports recorded in 2021. In 2020, 35,645 incidents were recorded.
In 2022, the highest number of offences were recorded in the Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR) Western area, where 4,651 offences were recorded.
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