Almost 1,900 women were turned away from domestic violence refuges
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What alarming statistics are presented about women turned away from domestic violence refuges?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
First, at least 1,450 people are so far known to have died in the earthquakes that struck Venezuela on Wednesday. Hundreds of buildings collapsed, leaving many trapped in the rubble. Orla Guerin is the BBC's senior international correspondent and is in northern Venezuela. Orla has described how the people there are angry at the lack of rescue efforts from the state.
As I've seen in other earthquake stories that I have covered, you see big flood-lit areas where teams are working through the night. None of that was here. What we found when we arrived was simply local people who have been trying their hardest for the last few days and nights, staying here, sleeping in the streets, trying to move rubble, in many cases with nothing more than their bare hands. And there is a huge sense that the state has completely let them down. During the course of the afternoon, we are seeing more activity here. We've certainly seen the police on the streets, but there is still no sign of a large-scale mobilised presence by the state.
And that is Orla Geeran. There are tens of thousands of people who are still missing in the aftermath of those earthquakes. I heard another BBC reporter this morning who lives in the area saying as far as he is concerned and from what he has seen, this is the worst natural disaster to hit the region since Haiti back in 2010.
How does the housing crisis affect women's ability to leave abusive relationships?
So we'll bring you more on that story as we go through the days ahead. Now though, we return home because almost 1,900 women died were turned away from domestic violence refuges in the last six months of 2025. This is due to a lack of beds. The report is from Safe Ireland and their interim CEO, Christine Lodge, joins me now. Good morning, Christine. Good morning, Clare. Thank you for having me on. We're delighted to talk to you this morning, but you say this is really concerning, really worrying.
Absolutely, absolutely. The figures are quite shocking, not surprising, but shocking.
So tell me what is happening then when women arrive for help or seek a bed to try and escape a dangerous situation?
Well, what we can see from the census, which Safe Ireland held on the 28th of January of this year, 38 of our services, Safe Ireland coordinated a network of 38 services across the country, and we held a one-day census, and that captured these very concerning figures and findings and one of the I suppose the most concerning finding is that the housing crisis is directly impacting on survivors ability to safely leave abusive relationships and rebuild stability so we weren't surprised by that but it is quite shocking to see that.
We were told years ago though, weren't we, that the counties in Ireland that didn't have any beds at the time, this was I think about 10, 12 years ago, that it would be a priority for government at that time, Christine, to make sure that there was a refuge in every county.
What challenges do women face when seeking refuge from domestic violence?
Now clearly that hasn't happened. Are things improving?
They are. To be fair, there is really good progress being made with the establishment of Coon in February 2024. And there certainly is a commitment from government to build a refuge in every county. And that investment programme is well underway. It hasn't completed yet, but it is well underway. But that still doesn't take away from the fact that almost 1,900 women could not access safe refuge accommodation in the last six months of 2025.
So tell me what is happening when a woman is in a desperate situation and let's face it, if you're knocking on the door looking for accommodation, perhaps with children in tow, you are in a desperate situation. In many cases then they're getting the answer that there is nowhere for them to go.
Exactly. And what we can see is that when women make the decision to leave, and that's a big decision to make, what we're seeing now and the census reflects that is that women are reluctant to leave an abusive relationship because of the fear of homelessness. And that's the biggest fear that women face is because at this moment in time, when they make a decision to leave, they can hopefully have a bed in refuge for themselves and their children.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What alarming statistics are presented about women turned away from domestic violence refuges?
0:01–1:32
2
How does the housing crisis affect women's ability to leave abusive relationships?
1:32–3:09
3
What challenges do women face when seeking refuge from domestic violence?
3:09–4:47
4
What are the systemic barriers preventing women from accessing refuge accommodations?
4:47–6:02
5
How do the experiences of women in domestic violence situations impact their decision to seek help?
6:02–7:19
6
What solutions are being proposed to improve access to domestic violence refuges?
7:19–8:45
7
What changes are needed in the court system for victims of domestic violence?
8:45–10:48