Unacceptable delays in the family courts are causing women, intimidated by violent spouses and partners, to drop applications for barring orders, a leading family law solicitor has said.
Ursula Regan said there was an eleven-week delay between applying for a safety or barring order, and getting a court date, "as the courts are so overburdened".
She was speaking at the publication today of the annual helpline statistics from Women's Aid.
The organisation's helpline last year responded to 10,481 calls, made 418 one to one support visits and provided 168 court accompaniments.
Some 15,158 incidents of domestic violence disclosed to the organisation, of which 9,101 were of emotional abuse; 3,355 were of physical abuse and 1,900 of financial abuse.
"Emotional abuse ranged from threats to kill the woman, the children or himself; women being followed everywhere and being constantly accused of having affairs," said Sarah Benson, manager of the helpline.
Physical abuse included women being punched, kicked, gagged and beaten, held down and choked, being beaten severely while holding a child, having hair pulled out and attempts to set the woman on fire.
She said 97 per cent of callers were women.
There was an increasing incidence of financial abuse, she continued and the helpline was hearing increasing numbers of women unable to escape their situation because of the recession, as they feared impoverishment, losing their home and were financially dependent on their partner.
"Another disturbing trend is violence on pregnant women on women who have just recently given birth."
Ms Regan said the first port of call for a woman seeking a barring or protection order against a violent or abusive man was the district court.
In Dublin the main family-law court was at Dolphin House, which had just two judges per day, each hearing between 16 and 18 cases about such issues as custody, maintenance and barring orders.
The "over-burdening" of the judges meant a woman currently faced an eleven-week wait between applying for an order and a court hearing.
"Within that period many women come under enormous pressure to withdraw their applications. The abuser has a lot of time to work on the victim. The pressure is social also."
She said once an application was withdrawn it was unlikely the woman, who would be further demoralised, would re-enter it.
Children were "suffering terribly" as a result of witnessing and hearing the abuse of their mothers, and again because the courts had no mechanism to have children's views heard when, for instance, applications for access were made by the abusive parent.
"Do they feel safe, or vulnerable, with that person?"
She called for the involvement of the probation services to interview children in an unbiased manner and then report back to the courts.
* National, free helpline number, which does not appear on itemised bills: 1800 341 900
