Thousands of women continue to suffer from domestic violence even after separating from their abusive partners, according to new figures released by Women's Aid.
The charity says one fifth of the 12,000 calls it received last year were from women who had tried to escape violence in the home by getting protection orders or separating from their former husbands or partners.
However, Women's Aid said the violence or abuse often continued in various forms: being stalked, threatened or assaulted, sometimes during access visits to see children; a woman's current partner being assaulted; or children being hurt either physically or sexually.
Director of Women's Aid Margaret Martin said figures the highlighted how difficult it can be for people to escape the threat of domestic violence.
"People often ask: Why doesn't she leave? There is an assumption that it is easy to get protection from domestic violence, and that once you leave, the violence will stop," she said. "This can be the case but as our figures show, many women continue to live with abuse even after they have separated from the abusive partner."
Ms Martin also said that after leaving a relationship, women can become more vulnerable as they may not be eligible for legal protection.
Around 1,000 callers to its helpline were being abused by a former partner to whom they were never been married, leaving them outside the remit of legislation aimed at protecting people from domestic violence.
"We strongly urge that any amendment to the Domestic Violence Act, 1996, should reflect this reality and close this gap so that women are fully protected from domestic violence," Ms Martin said.
Minority groups, in particular immigrant women, are newly represented in the Women's Aid annual statistics. Ms Martin said that while the numbers were relatively low due to language and awareness barriers, it was vital that resources were directed to ensure these barriers can be overcome.
As well as violence against women, it said it received almost 2,000 cases of abuse against children and their mother. This abuse, the group said, ranged from physical violence (beatings, objects including furniture broken against children's bodies) to locking children in a room for days with no food or toilet facilities.
Women's Aid says that in total it received more than 8,000 incidents of alleged emotional abuse and almost 2,500 cases of physical abuse. A total of almost 600 incidents of sexual abuse were reported, with 248 rapes within relationships being reported to the service.
Last year's figures show that new callers continue to access the service with around 4,000 calls coming from first time contacts.
* The Women's Aid freephone helpline is open from 10am to 10pm, seven days a week: 1800 341 900. It also has a website at http://www.womensaid.ie
