Nearly half the family law cases dealt with by district courts in 2006 related to domestic violence.
Some 20,900 family law applications were processed by those courts last year, of which 9,924 were made under the Domestic Violence Act.
The figures, which reflect the scale of domestic violence in Ireland, were published today by the Courts Service in the third issue of Family Law Matters, a series of reports on family law proceedings.
The district courts, which can make several orders to protect a spouse or a non-marital co-habitee from violence or the threat of violence or harassment, heard 3,132 applications for barring orders in 2006.
A barring order prevents the person named from entering the family home or threatening the spouse/partner or other family member.
A total of 1,357 (less than 50 per cent) were granted and more than half (1,682) were withdrawn or struck out, the report notes. Ninety-three, about 3 per cent, were refused.
Application for safety orders, which prohibit an person using or threatening violence in the home but allow them to remain in the home reflected a similar pattern.
Some 3,050 applications were made, with 1,221 being granted and 1,726 being struck out and 103 being refused.
There was a higher proportion of protection orders granted. These orders are granted pending the hearing of an application for a safety or a barring order, with 3,137 applications made, of which 2,845 were granted.
The bulk of the remaining cases dealt with by the district court were child-related applications, accounting for 10,976 of the 20,900 cases.
There were 5,027 applications for custody and access, with 3,453 granted and 1,417 withdrawn or struck out. A total of 157 applications, about 3 per cent, were refused.
Of the 1,742 applications for guardianship from unmarried fathers, 1,268 were granted, and 432 were withdrawn or struck out, the report said.
There were 4,207 applications for maintenance, 2,652 of them relating to unmarried couples. While 2,909 were granted, 1,204 were withdrawn or struck out and 94 were refused.
The report, authored by Dr Carol Coulter, notes "the enormous volume of family law processed by the State's various District Courts".
"In a commuter town, one judge showed a family law reporter his lists for a period, showing that 70 applications in one day were by no means exceptional."
