The number of domestic violence and abuse disclosures made to the Women’s Aid support service last year increased by one third to more than 62,000, which the charity believes is “just the tip of the iceberg”.
In its annual impact report, Women’s Aid said 57,520 disclosures of abuse against women and 4,755 against children were made to its services last year.
There were reports of abuse during pregnancy or post-partum (1,522), threats by abusers to kill women, children, family members or to self-harm (1,321), threats to have children taken away from mothers (670) and rape (381).
Women’s Aid said it also had 512 disclosures of non-fatal strangulation against women and 906 situations of stalking, online and offline.
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It said the large rise in disclosures illustrated sustained high levels of violence against women, but also a greater public understanding of what constitutes domestic abuse.
It was also a result of “growing service complexity”, with women increasingly requiring longer-term engagement with a range of services.
Women’s Aid chief executive Sarah Benson said the number and nature of the disclosures of abuse “is utterly appalling” but “just the tip of the iceberg”. She said 35 per cent of women in Ireland suffer physical, psychological or sexual abuse from an intimate partner.
“Behind every contact and disclosure is a woman or child navigating fear, coercion and harm, often within situations of profound complexity,” she said. “Abuse continues to manifest across emotional, physical, sexual and economic dimensions, frequently compounded by housing insecurity, financial strain and systemic barriers within the justice system.”
Women’s Aid said its national and face-to-face frontline services were contacted 37,790 times last year, an increase of 11.5 per cent on 2024’s figure.
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While contacts for face-to-face support services increased marginally, the number of victims and survivors using the charity’s helpline (calls, instant messages and emails) increased from 24,396 to 28,179.
Callers have been having longer conversations with the charity’s support services and uncovering a greater number of abuses that can be highly complex in nature, Women’s Aid said. It cited economic abuse, including the creation of debt in women’s names or the withholding of child maintenance, as examples.
“Women rarely disclose a single form of abuse. Instead, they describe overlapping and cumulative experiences of harm, most commonly characterised by emotional abuse alongside physical, sexual and economic abuse,” the report notes.
Nearly one in three women in contact with Women’s Aid services last year were being subjected to abuse by an ex-partner, which Benson said confirmed that often “ending the relationship does not end the abuse”.
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“Separating from a controlling and abusive partner is difficult and a time of heightened risk,” she said. “Many women have children with their abuser and needed to access the courts in relation to children’s matters.”
Benson noted “systemic barriers within the justice system” allowing abuse to manifest across “emotional, physical, sexual and economic dimensions”.
She called on Government to engage with domestic, sexual and gender-based violence organisations to co-create the fourth national strategy for the area.
